On Tuesday 18 November, INSPIRE co-convened an online workshop with the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) and the JustRE Alliance. This workshop was part of BHRRC’s Pathways to Shared Prosperity project.
The workshop aimed to facilitate peer learning and exchange among investors, renewable developers, policymakers, and civil society partners on matters concerning the business case for shared ownership of renewables projects and the practical implementation of it.
Presentations
During the workshop, Bukelwa Nzimande (BHRRC) presented key insights from the recent BHRRC Benchmarking on Renewable Energy and Human Rights, which assessed 35 leading renewable energy companies on four key areas including:
- alignment with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,
- management of salient risk areas,
- the gap between company policy and practice and
- low-carbon transition plans.
Neil Walker (Forum for the Future) shared about current research that aims to build a taxonomy of community ownership models in RE projects from the Global South. The research is conducted under the umbrella of the JustRE Alliance and expected to be released in quarter 2 of 2026.
To close off the presentations, Holle Wlokas (INSPIRE) walked the attendees though policy and practice insights about community shareholding in South Africa’s context of REIPPPP. Her presentation included a high-level view on the REIPPPP policy instrument and an introduction to our work in the Trust Matters project.
Closing
The workshop ended off with an open dialogue to discuss implementation challenges, collaboration opportunities and a frank conversation about which resources are needed most.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with BHRRC and the JustRE Alliance to expand the reach of our work into global industry and civil society conversations around advancing community ownership in renewable energy.
