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

AbstractPublic 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.Keywords: energy justiceenergy-just companiesenergy lawenergy transitionclimate neutralitycorporate energy transformation plansenergy regulationnet-zero Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 Laura A Locke, ‘California’s Energy Crisis: Power’s on – But the Cost!’ (Time, [2001]) accessed 14 November 20222 Maciej M Sokołowski, ‘Balancing Energy Regulation: A Day-Watchman Approach’ in Robert Grzeszczak (ed), Economic Freedom and Market Regulation: In Search of Proper Balance (Nomos 2020) 1673 Raphael J Heffron, ‘Energy Law in Crisis: An Energy Justice Revolution Needed’ (2022) 15 The Journal of World Energy Law & Business 167, at 1694 Ibid 169–705 Ibid 1726 See Raphael J Heffron, ‘Applying Energy Justice into the Energy Transition’ (2022) 156 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1119367 Raphael J Heffron and Darren McCauley, ‘The Concept of Energy Justice Across the Disciplines’ (2017) 105 Energy Policy 6588 See Yuwan Duan and Xuemei Jiang, ‘Pollution Haven or Pollution Halo? 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