Inspired to act by the global efforts to reduce nonrenewable fuel dependence and to uncouple their essential infrastructure from fossil fuels, communities have taken it upon themselves to do their part to transition towards a sustainable future even if governments at the national level have been lagging behind.

I see natural gas as a transition fuel. It is better than oil but not nearly as good as wind and solar. I am being honest on what we need to do. We won't immediately get rid of it.

Transformation must happen in a way that sees disadvantaged communities receive the resourcing they need.

What is... not comprehended about this predicament is that the developed world will begin to suffer long before the oil and gas... run out. The American way of life... can run only on reliable supplies of dependably cheap [hydrocarbons like] oil and gas. Even mild to moderate deviations in... supply will crush our economy and make… daily life impossible. Fossil fuel reserves are not scattered equitably around the world. They tend to be concentrated in places where the native peoples don’t like the West in general [...], places physically very remote, places where we realistically can exercise little control [...]. [...] We can be certain that the price and supplies of fossil fuels will suffer oscillations and disruptions in the period ahead [...]. [...] The decline of fossil fuels is certain to ignite chronic strife between nations contesting the remaining supplies. These resource wars have already begun. There will be more of them. They are... to grind on and on [...]. They will only aggravate a situation that, in and of itself, could bring down civilizations. The extent of suffering... will certainly depend on how tenaciously we attempt to cling to obsolete habits, customs, and assumptions–for instance, how fiercely... [we] decide to fight to maintain suburban lifestyles that simply cannot be rationalized any longer.

It includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fence-line communities that have been smothered . . . by the legacy of pollution, and fight environmental injustice that’s been going on for so long.

To achieve the desired energy transition, it is important to make sure countries benefit from the full range of incentives. We also need to impose carbon pricing and cover all key sectors, including insurance and maritime and air transport. Moreover, solutions must be found to environmental trade barriers, and developing countries should be supported in their endeavors to diversify their economies and have access to patented technology on preferential terms.

I think having community owned projects and generating our energy, bringing that back to being near us, so we know that we are connected to our energy source is coming from. That's an empowering process for communities on so many levels.

We need to break the cycle where marginalized communities are hit the hardest by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover from crises and prepare for the next one.

Climate justice is racial justice. The climate crisis has always been an issue embedded in systemic racism. Where can we find fossil fuel infrastructure? In communities of color. All the pollutants and toxins those refineries and power plants emit harm the Black and brown communities nearby. Black people, in particular, have borne an unfair burden from the drivers of climate change. Changing this isn't simple. It's not something we can just snap our fingers, and it'll be gone. Solving this will require a complete transformation of social policies. All that money cities and counties spend on their police departments? They can invest it in Black communities to build public transit infrastructure, bike lanes, clean energy projects. That'll take some serious political will. While it's growing, it's not growing nearly fast enough to save the lives of the people climate change is set to harm first and worst.

Above all, and most immediately, we face the end of the cheap fossil fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap [and easy-to-find hydrocarbons like] oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as a benefit of modern life. All the necessities, comforts, luxuries, and miracles of our time–, , , , , , , , , , surgery, the , you name it–owe their origins or continued existence in one way or another to cheap fossil fuel. Even our nuclear power plants ultimately depend on cheap [and easy-to-find hydrocarbons like] oil and gas for all the procedures of construction, maintenance, and extracting and processing nuclear fuels. The blandishments of cheap oil and gas were so seductive, and induced such transports of mesmerizing contentment, that we ceased paying attention to the essential nature of these miraculous gifts from the [deep] earth: that they exist in finite, nonrenewable supplies, unevenly distributed around the world. To aggravate matters, the wonders of steady technological progress under the reign of oil have tricked us... [in]to believ[ing] that anything we wish for hard enough can come true. These days, even people in our culture who ought to know better are wishing ardently that a smooth, seamless transition from fossil fuels to their putative replacements... lies just a few years ahead… [but] this is a dangerous fantasy. The true best-case scenario may be that some of these technologies will take decades to develop–meaning that we can expect an extremely turbulent interval between the end of cheap oil and whatever comes next. A more likely scenario is that new fuels and technologies may never replace fossil fuels at the scale, rate, and manner at which the [industrial] world currently consumes them.

We have entered a new reality where fossil fuel companies have lost their legitimacy and social license to operate.

The gentrification that oftentimes occurs in many of our communities, it occurs at the—I guess, the detriment of communities that have historically lived in those areas...we have to say that we want to make sure that we redevelop and we develop our communities in a way that minimizes displacement of incumbent residents, and also ensure that those residents who want to remain in those older neighborhoods that are undergoing transformation, that they can. And those who want to leave, by choice, can leave.

Success requires leadership from all levels of society, including from people everywhere working to grow community-facilitating cultural values, institutions, and infrastructure in the places where they live. Together we need to achieve four conditions critical to the transition... 1. Earth balance. We must reduce humanity’s total environmental burden to bring us into sustainable balance with the capacity of Earth’s generative systems. This requires immediate action... 2. Equitable distribution. We must achieve an equitable distribution of wealth and power. Immediate action is required to stop the further concentration of wealth while advancing equitable cooperative ownership... 3. Life-serving technologies. We must advance technologies that strengthen rather than impair life’s regenerative capacity. Immediate action is required to roll back use of harmful technologies, including the use of toxic chemicals in agriculture and our dependence on carbon and nuclear energy.... 4. Living communities. We must rebuild relationships of people to one another and to nature to create strong, healthy, deeply democratic living communities. This will involve reducing dependence on money while encouraging sharing and mutual self-help in the places where people live... It is time to unite as families, communities, and nations in our common identity as members of an ecological civilization, with a commitment to creating the possible world of our shared human dream.

Everyone should have access to affordable, reliable, cleaner energy. Yet, too many lack this critical element for quality of life and economic growth. While cleaner fuels like natural gas are abundant, there are regions in the world with outdated infrastructure that prevents the transition to cleaner, more environmentally friendly energy.