Second Stakeholder meeting on framing and logistics
As the situation of electricity provision continues to decline in Lebanon, electricity supply to areas has been reducing so drastically, families are spending their evenings under candlelight. The country is waiting for gas supplies to arrive by ferry.
Continuing with the process of co-production of the Citizen Assembly, the CA delivery team conducted its second consultation meeting on 30th July 2020. With approximately fifteen participants from AUB NI, entrepreneurs, energy consultants, the Mayor of Akkar, academics and local stakeholders.
Presenting what we know about the state of electricity in Hamra
The session began with a presentation of the energy data that the Hamra Prosperity Team has collected throughout the past year. This dataset consists of a building and infrastructure survey assessing the conditions of the electricity supply system at street and building level. It also presented the findings of a household survey that gathered data on electricity costs and source of electricity supply by income, education and gender levels. Here the feedback we received were suggestions to control for education/income and to control for size of household. Suggestions to improve the presentation were to add photos to illustrate building conditions. We also discussed the difficulty in getting data on illegal connections to the public grid and illegal connections to the generator because of the sensitivity of the matter. Generators’ owners was also mentioned as essential to understanding the provision of electricity in the area, and the link between the generators’ owners and their political affiliation was also highlighted. It was also suggested to survey or ask for the citizens/participants in the CA to monitor the state of electricity in their households until the date of the CA. This is to document the ever changing environment, and to also document the impacts of the (un)availability of electricity, beyond health and environment, to its effects on the daily routines of individuals and their wellbeing.
Discussion over the proposed framing questions of the CA
A discussion ensued between stakeholders over the need to focus on what is possible and ‘realistic’, versus what is visionary and ‘unrealistic’ in discussing future energy systems.
First, because there is a deadlock in Lebanon at the moment, “there is a high wall to overcome” and a suggestion is to focus on what citizens can and have the power to do – and to “avoid getting into further despair” – for example, what can I do at the level of my building to save energy? This view that the CA should “work within the limits” also felt that discussion of ‘big issues’ are not things that the assembly members can decide on – “because we will get depressed - because this will suggest new laws that won’t get passed.”
The delivery team members explained how community lead visions can draw strategies and policies and allow for people to have a voice that can shape the direction of the solution to the crisis.
Discussion of questions
List of proposed questions:
How did the electricity of Lebanon reach this state? (History of Electricity of Lebanon)
What is my relationship to electricity in my household and my neighborhood?
What does energy justice mean to us?
Where should we get our electricity from? (electricity mix, etc.)
Managing and regulating the Electricity sector- strategic plans and laws in governance?
How do we reduce the amount of electricity that we use and produce? (energy efficiency)
The group of stakeholders then did a prioritization exercise to determine the questions appropriate for the first pilot CA. The majority agreed that the CA should start with basic questions before building on the more difficult topics. The focus of the CA will therefore be on principles of energy justice, energy production and reducing energy demand in the current phase and under the current circumstances. The questions on better governance of energy systems was deemed beyond the scope of the pilot though it could be decided by the participants in the CA to be an important subject to tackle in later stages. There needs to be adequate time and space to discuss the political and financial issues, property law and financing. Clearly for Lebanon to try to find the 4000MW of electricity that it needs to meet demand, it needs new laws and financing – but again, to get into a national solution-lead strategy would need a much longer CA.
Another comment on the questions: when considering the impact of diesel generators, the focus should not just be health and environment but household well-being overall including cost burden, impact on routines and lifestyles, what you can and can’t use when using a generator. This causes stress and can have negative impacts on families.
On logistical matters
We face a challenging task of holding a public gathering in this period of on-off lockdown and social distancing. It is hard to predict what the situation will be like in September/October regarding the pandemic, but we do know that 1. Social distancing is still necessary 2. The risk to vulnerable groups may impede their participation understandably.
There was a consensus that it is necessary to move parts of the CA online. We agreed that the deliberation/decision elements of the CA necessitate a physical in-person meeting.
Filming some of the presentations would present the participants the chance to watch and review information at their own pace ahead of meeting in person for the deliberation. Concerns were raised to ensure access to marginalised and vulnerable groups such as the elderly and child-carers.
Suggestions for good examples to showcase
It would be interesting to talk about collective/coop electricity production elsewhere and how this could be pushed for in Lebanon.
PV and wind co-op production.
Municipalities doing participative based power production at local level
There is the example of Kabrikha as community example for RE projects (mainly solar) even if it is facing difficulties, it would be a good example of (technical, legal, financial) lessons learnt.
Jbeil with the municipality taking over is another example of governance reform even if it is not renewable energy. Jbeil is still a concession, similarly to Zahle before it became an operator in 2018.
Note: we have taken a broad view of who a ‘stakeholder’ is- “means an organization, institution, Public Office or an informal group whose activity is related to the subject of the Assembly, or which is directly affected by issues raised during the Assembly”
As per the guidelines provided by CA expert Marcin Gerwin: the Stakeholders participating in the Assembly have the right to:
present their position in the form of an oral presentation during the CA meeting, including suggesting Recommendations and referring to the Experts' speeches;
provide Assembly Members with a summary of the opinion their opinion in paper and electronic form;
provide the Assembly Members with their comments on the suggested Recommendations by Experts and other Stakeholders in paper and electronic form;
provide the Assembly Members with all other materials regarding the subject of the Assembly;
raise objections and comments regarding the course of the Assembly to the Monitoring Team.
The team now will begin the preparation work over August to be ready to launch the CA in September.
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