Just energy business needed! How to achieve a just energy transition by engaging energy companies in reaching climate neutrality: (re)conceptualising energy law for energy corporations

Abstract

Public administration and energy regulators provide policy and economic support to achieve climate neutrality; however, the role of key stakeholders in energy transition, such as energy companies, is critical to a just energy transition. Corporate voluntary incentives to guide, support and pressure companies to disclose their climate-related risks are becoming commonplace internationally. Yet, formal legal frameworks to engage energy companies in reaching net zero emissions have largely been confined to financial risk disclosure and voluntary regulation. In this context, the article offers a normative solution that enables the effective implementation of obligations imposed on energy companies related to the 2050 energy transformation, addressing the concept of ‘energy-just companies’. It also proposes the management of this process by illustrating a different, proactive approach to the role of effective obligations in the transformation process based on a novel understanding of energy law principles. These legal solutions consist of ‘corporate energy transformation plans’ based on energy justice applied by energy companies.