Technology is advancing rapidly, but without clear, consistent metrics to track how benefits and burdens are shared, governments and industry risk making reactive, costly decisions—and communities risk being left behind. Questions of participation, trust, and equity are increasingly central to Australia’s journey toward becoming a renewable energy superpower.
The report responds to the following questions:
- How can fairness, participation and accountability be measured across the energy transition?
- What research gaps currently limit Australia’s understanding of energy justice?
- How can an Australian-specific JUST framework—Justice, Universality, Space and Time—guide the development of consistent metrics?
- What international approaches can inform Australian best practice?
- How can metrics reduce social risk, improve planning, and ensure no community is left behind?
ACOLA’s Examining JUST Energy Metrics report provides the most comprehensive exploration to date of how justice can be assessed across the energy transition. By outlining priority research opportunities and highlighting the need for clear, evidence-based metrics, the report offers a pathway for governments, industry and communities to shape a transition that is fair, inclusive and trusted.
Read the full report to explore how justice can be embedded at the heart of Australia’s energy future.
This report provides a foundation for developing metrics and methodologies to assess and strengthen fairness within the energy transition and offers practical insights to guide future research and collaboration uniquely relevant for Australia.
Australia’s energy transition lacks clear, calculable, and consistent ways to measure fairness and inclusion. Despite major technological progress, there are no consistent ways to measure energy justice, including how fairly the benefits and burdens of the transition are shared.
‘Energy justice’ provides a more comprehensive policymaking framework for a fair and inclusive energy transition, building on and extending current approaches based on ‘social licence’. While the concept of social licence has played an important role in addressing local acceptance and community engagement, this report uses the broader concept of energy justice, as it captures long-term equity, inclusion and community benefit, and supports accountability across the social, economic and governance dimensions of the energy transition.
Without clear metrics, governments risk costly, reactive decisions. Proactively measuring and monitoring justice outcomes can derisk and shorten project lead times, reduce costs, and help ensure benefits are distributed equitably.
The JUST framework can be used to guide future research and policy. The JUST framework provides a coherent and practical way to identify metrics and approaches that can improve fairness, participation, and accountability in Australia’s energy transition
Australia stands at a critical juncture in its energy transition. The Australian Government has committed to the urgent goal of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below 2005 levels and achieving 82% renewable electricity generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) by 2030 (DCCEEW, 2025a). More recently, the Australian Government set a national target to reduce emissions by 62–70% below 2005 levels by 2035 (DCCEEW, 2025a).
These ambitious goals raise key research questions on how transparently and fairly Australia can measure and monitor its energy transition. If Australia is to successfully rapidly transform its energy system, drive economic productivity, and position itself as a ‘renewable energy superpower’ (Garnaut, 2022), it needs to do so by incorporating ‘the perspectives and wellbeing of people, in the context of their lives, communities, economy and employment, in a way that is fair’ (Clarke et al., 2021, p. 2). Robust metrics and proactive measuring of Australia’s energy transition can support governments to make informed policy decisions that increase efficiencies, reduce costs and manage risks – ensuring that social and economic benefits are distributed inclusively and fairly across all sectors.
Building on the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) Energy Transition Research Plan, this report expands on the Research Plan’s Theme 2: Social Engagement Dynamics (Clarke et al., 2021, p.18) to investigate the current state of energy justice research in Australia. It identifies research gaps and explores how a JUST framework – spanning the pillars of Justice, Universality, Space, and Time (Heffron, 2021b) – supported by qualitative and quantitative metrics, can be used to assess energy justice within Australia’s energy transition.
Drawing on insights primarily from the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, and New Zealand, this report compares differing approaches to JUST metrics and highlights potential avenues for future Australian energy transition research. While Australia can learn from these international examples, our unique geographic, economic and social contexts will demand a tailored, locally relevant, cohesive, scalable, and interdisciplinary research agenda to explore JUST metrics in an Australian context.
The report identifies both urgent and strategic Australian-specific research priorities. To understand the potential application of JUST metrics, it presents a matrix that categorises JUST metrics by urgency (reflecting the immediacy and potential impact of the inquiry) and adoptability (indicating the readiness of metric implementation).
Ultimately, this report provides a foundation for developing metrics and methodologies to assess and strengthen fairness within the energy transition and offers practical insights to guide future research and collaboration uniquely
relevant for Australia.
Emeritus Professor Kenneth Baldwin
FTSE Emeritus Professor of Research School of Physics at The Australian National University
Distinguished Professor Fran Baum
AO FAHMS FASSA
Emeritus Distinguished Professor Lesley Head
FASSA FAHA
Dr Thomas Maschmeyer
AO FAA FTSE
Emeritus Professor Sue Richardson
AM FASSA
Merryn York
AM FTSE
Adjunct Professor Trevor Danos
AM FTSE FAICD
Emeritus Professor Janet McCalman
AC FAHA FASSA
