Shehabi, A; Al-Masri, M; Obeid, J; Ayoub, M; Jallad, M; Daher, M; (2021)
The Citizens’ Assembly Pilot (CA) on energy justice and electricity was a conceptual and a methodological experiment conducted over five sessions over three days in the neighborhood of Hamra and Beirut in October and November 2020. The CA aimed at exploring meanings, dimensions, priorities of energy justice in a deliberative democratic setting. The CA tackled five main questions: How did we get to where we are? What is energy justice to us? What is the energy-mix we would like to have? What do we need to be doing as individuals and communities to achieve a better energy future? How should we move forward with our decisions on the above questions? The responses produced interesting findings for researchers and international stakeholders to consider further; such as skepticism over renewable energy targets, the interest in circular solutions to solve multiple intersecting service sectors like waste and water in particular. It also raised questions over decentralization as well as privatization at different scales of governance.