2025 was a foundational year for the JustRE Alliance. We are laying the ground for a powerful platform to catalyse critical work on the just deployment of large-scale renewable energy in the Global South. We achieved progress on four strategic pillars: producing rigorous evidence on the social factors constraining renewable energy deployment and a taxonomy of community ownership approaches prevalent in the Global South, designing a global-scale Practitioner Leadership Program, establishing an online Community of Practice on community ownership, and fourthly, building the scaffold of a longer-term strategy and participation terms for the JustRE Alliance.
Understanding Social Resistance in Renewable Energy Deployment
In 2025, we launched a research initiative, led by the JustRE Alliance partner SEI, to develop an analytical framework to quantify the impact of social resistance on the speed of solar and wind deployment. The research will be published in 2026, and we will contribute to the ecosystem with clear evidence on how much social opposition contributes to renewable project delays relative to other investment and governance risks.
Practitioner Leadership Program: Building Capacity Across the Global South
Throughout 2025, JustRE advanced the design of the Practitioner Leadership Program, led by the Responsible Energy Initiative. The program aims to become a multi-regional learning initiative to strengthen capabilities in social performance, community engagement, and just transition practices. The program will prioritise peer-to-peer learning, Global South case studies, practical problem-solving, and place-based regional delivery. Preparations for the December 2025 design workshop laid the groundwork for a 2026 pilot.
Creating a taxonomy of Community Ownership models
We started developing a taxonomy of governance models for community ownership of renewable energy projects to understand the spectrum of relationships between project developers, local communities, and other stakeholders. This research aims to map and compare governance models across regions, identify patterns and gaps in community participation, and inform policy and design decisions to achieve more equitable and sustainable project governance.
Highlights from the JustRE Community of Practice on Community Ownership
In 2025, the JustRE Alliance launched its Community of Practice (CoP) to turn community ownership of large-scale renewables from aspiration to implementation across the Global South. Across three sessions, the CoP built shared foundations, examined real Indigenous equity partnerships, and explored the long-term capacities communities need to steward renewable energy assets meaningfully.
Session 1 – Defining Community Ownership (18 Sep 2025)
The first session established a common language and practical pathways for community ownership, emphasising clear value-sharing mechanisms, FPIC as an ongoing rights-based process, and the need for strong capacities.
Session 2 – Indigenous Equity Partnerships (16 Oct 2025)
The second session centred on the Antú I Solar project in Argentina, illustrating how the Mapuche Millaqueo community is co-developing an 18 MW project.
Session 3 – Capacity for Long-Term Ownership (13 Nov 2025)
The third session focused on the capacities needed for communities to move from “paper ownership” to genuine long-term stewardship, drawing on SEI’s codesigned training programme with Wayuu communities in La Guajira and INSPIRE’s Trust Matters initiative in South Africa’s REIPPPP.
JustRE Alliance engagement model and strategy
In 2025, we launched the JustRE engagement model, enabling organisations to choose the level of involvement that best matches their ambitions and capacities while still contributing to our shared mission. In parallel, we have been codesigning our Theory of Change to guide our strategy, clarifying how our workstreams on knowledge, capacity-building, and narrative change will equip the field for social excellence in large-scale renewables across the Global South.
What is coming in 2026
We will publish our research on social resistance and the taxonomy of community ownership, providing the field with actionable evidence. We will also pilot the Practitioner Leadership Program, bringing together practitioners from across the Global South to build skills, exchange experience, and strengthen regional capacity for social excellence. Our Community of Practice on Community Ownership will deepen its work through an in-person learning event, creating space for collaboration and peer learning among organisations advancing community ownership on the ground. Finally, we will continue strengthening the Alliance’s strategy, participation design, and partnerships.
