People Power: Putting Consumers at the heart of the Global Energy Transition - Part Two

Soaring prices, supply constraints and increasingly complex energy systems mean that the challenges facing today’s consumers are substantial, particularly for people in vulnerable circumstances. Change and uncertainty are fast becoming the norm.

Part One of this two-part series explored how Consumers International is changing the rules of the energy transition by making consumers visible in global energy policy, influencing institutions such as UN Trade and Development and the International Energy Agency to recognise consumers as active participants in the transition.

But influence only matters if it leads to change in people's lives.

In Part Two we turn to the next two stages: building the evidence for consumer-centred energy systems and turning that evidence into practical action with our Members, partners and the energy industry.

Catch up on part one

OUR IMPACT

The energy transition provides an opportunity to address the inequalities of fossil fuel systems and build a fairer, more accessible energy landscape. But achieving this requires more than ambitious policy. It requires evidence of what works, practical solutions that respond to consumers’ needs, and collaboration between consumer organisations, policymakers, businesses and other partners.

Through our Clean Energy Futures programme, Consumers International brings together these perspectives to help make the transition fast, fair, and accountable – and to ensure consumers can actively participate in shaping their energy future.

Our work focuses on three areas of impact:

Changing the rules: making consumers visible in global energy policy.
Building the evidence: demonstrating that consumer-centred approaches deliver better outcomes through research, insights, and practical examples.
Turning evidence into action: working with energy experts, policymakers and partners to embed consumer-centred solutions in practice.

Part One explored the first. Here, we focus on the second and third.

BUILDING THE EVIDENCE: DEMONSTRATING WHAT WORKS

Our Members provide a wealth of knowledge and first-hand consumer experience. Combined with our research and analysis, this evidence shows what an approach built with consumers can achieve – helping to structure dialogue, shape commitments and reframe global conversations about the energy transition.

Making an Impact

Consumers have immense potential to shape a fairer, cleaner and more sustainable energy future. But lasting change requires more than individual choices. It depends on collective action, market reform and supportive policy measures that enable people to participate.

In 2025, we launched our Impact Initiative: Amplifying Consumer Voices in the Clean Energy Transition. Drawing on experiences from Member organisations across more than 25 countries, the research demonstrates how real-world initiatives that mobilise consumers have helped reshape the energy sector.

The findings highlight the importance of trust, clear calls to action and community engagement in overcoming barriers to consumer participation.

Successful examples range from school-led behaviour change in India to mass public petitions in Germany and grassroots campaigns in Brazil and Pakistan. Together, they demonstrate the effectiveness of consumer mobilisation when it is rooted in the needs and interests of local communities.

Our experience working with our Members shows that innovative, locally-led approaches run by trusted consumer groups leads to sustained engagement and community impact. Consumer organisations are uniquely placed to build this trust – connecting people with governments, businesses and other partners, and ensuring lived experience informs the decisions being made.

Across our network, we have seen consumer groups drive change in three key ways:

Behavioural change, through initiatives such as energy-efficiency awareness campaigns.

Community action, including community solar projects and cooperative energy groups.

Systemic reform, advocating for market and policy improvements based around consumer needs and expectations.

Most importantly, lived experience can change how we understand the benefits and challenges of energy transition.

It brings issues such as energy affordability, safety, sustainability and transparency into focus – and shifts the questions policymakers and funders are asking: from “How fast can we transition?” to “How can we bring people along on this journey?“; “Who benefits?” and “Who is left behind?”.

This is the value of consumer evidence: it helps turn lived experience into insight that can influence decisions.

TURNING EVIDENCE INTO ACTION: ENGAGING INDUSTRY AND DELIVERING SOLUTIONS

Part of the journey to a fairer, more accessible energy sector involves empowering consumers to take part. To that end, Consumers International has pioneered consumer-led solutions and inclusive service models that simplify access to clean energy.

ONE-STOP-SHOPS

Solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicles, grid-connected smart heating and cooling: clean energy technologies are giving households new ways to generate, consume, store and share cleaner, cheaper and more secure electricity. But as the market becomes more complex, consumers can struggle to understand their options and access the right support.

Consumer-focused one-stop-shops help address this challenge. These integrated information hubs provide simple, trusted and locally relevant advice, including impartial guidance, clear explanations of available options and access to financial support. They help people navigate an increasingly technical energy landscape and make more informed decisions.

Our global study, Designing a One-Stop-Shop for Consumer Renewable Energy Systems, identified 113 solutions worldwide across diverse markets including the US, Australia, Kenya and Colombia. The research showed how these models can build consumer confidence and support uptake of clean-tech solutions.

We are now helping Members put this evidence into practice. Supported by grants from our partner Integrate to Zero, our Member CADEF in Nigeria launched its platform in late 2024, followed by Members in Thailand, Colombia, and Chile.

In early 2026, the network of one-stop-shops expanded to include Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines, with additional platforms in South Africa and India set to launch by year end. We are also sharing best practice and successful existing approaches, including examples from Consumentenbond in the Netherlands and Which? in the UK, so that consumer organisations in more markets can develop similar hubs.

This is evidence becoming action: identifying what consumers need, testing practical ways to meet those needs, and creating models that can be adapted and scaled.

INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT

Turning evidence into change also means working with energy service providers and other institutions who hold direct levers for changing markets. Businesses shape the products, services and experiences that consumers encounter every day. Engaging with industry is therefore an important part of influencing how the energy transition is delivered and ensuring that consumer needs are reflected in market practice.

Through our engagement with leading businesses across the energy sector, we help demonstrate how clean energy innovation can be combined with a stronger commitment to consumer needs, strengthening trust, participation and more equitable outcomes.

By championing the role of consumer experience in product and service design, we encourage practices that improve engagement, build confidence and make the benefits of the transition more accessible to households.

These collaborations help bridge the gap between consumer evidence and market practice, creating examples that businesses and others can learn from, adapt and build on.

INCLUSIVE ENERGY SERVICES

We are also testing how consumer evidence can directly inform better services for people facing the greatest barriers.

Consumers in vulnerable situations often face systemic barriers when accessing energy services, including inefficient housing, higher costs and limited choices.

Our Blueprint for Inclusive Energy Services brings together consumer advocates, energy providers and local organisations to address these inequalities and improve consumer outcomes.

The first report in the series uses Italy's ageing population as a case study. More than 2.4 million households in Italy live in energy poverty, with many people aged over 75 facing additional challenges linked to low incomes, poor health, limited digital confidence and social isolation.

The pilot placed consumers at the centre of identifying the ten most important actions energy providers can take to better serve consumers, particularly those most at risk. Recommendations include strengthening communication, improving support, increasing energy efficiency and building consumer trust.

The result is a practical framework for more accessible, responsive and human-centred energy services with insights that can be adapted across other markets and help lay the groundwork to address energy poverty.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The value of this work lies in using evidence to drive action.

Consumers are not simply people who need to be protected from the impacts of the energy transition. They are a source of insight, evidence and solutions – and essential partners in making the transition work.

Across this two-part series, we have followed that journey:

Changing the rules. Building the evidence. Turning it into action.

The goal is to amplify consumer voices and ensure their experience, needs and expectations influence the policies, markets, services and investments that will shape our energy future.

Our campaign and policy influence is growing and the seeds of our industry engagement are beginning to bear fruit. We will continue working towards a collective clean-energy future that is fair, inclusive and accountable.

Read the rest of the series:

Part One - Changing the rules: making consumers visible in global energy policy