What is the current national situation on renewable energy in your country?
Who are the decision makers on energy policies and projects?
You usually should be able to find out this information by doing research about your target. If its government, find out which ministries are involved in energy decision making, and who controls them. If it’s a business, find out as much as possible about the structure of decision making within that business.
What has the government been doing until now to transform the energy sector to achieve 100% renewable energy?
You may think you know this from media reports, but have a look at recent reports, such as REN21 Status of Renewables and the IRENA study on renewable energy potential for accurate information.
What have other stakeholders (e.g. businesses, universities, civil society groups) been doing to increase 100%renewable energy adoption pledges? Could they be your allies?
More and more stakeholders from all around the world adopt a 100% renewable energy target. To build onto this momentum contact CSO networks within your country –. Depending on the country you work in, you might want to have a look at ongoing projects of development organisations (GIZ, DfID, USAID), and development Banks (World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank) to see how much interest there is generally in 100% renewable energy.
How is renewable energy portrayed in your national media? What positive and negative arguments are being used for increasing renewable energy in your area?
- Doing some desk research into different types and political persuasions of national media outlets e.g. newspapers, news we sites, TV should give you a limited idea. The further back you can go, the better.
- If you have the time and resources, you can do ‘message testing’. A whole guide on how you do this can be found here. (Coming soon)
Do examples of renewable energy projects exist in your area (e.g. community energy projects, distributed energy infrastructure)? Can you use these as case studies on feasibility?
- The Go100% map lets you see renewable energy projects already underway
- The Transition in Action map lets you see where pledges have been made to go 100% renewable.
Picking a target
Your campaign should focus on one, clear target. Campaigns have been run in the past to get IKEA to go 100% renewable energy, or Oxford University to go 100% renewable energy. Please refer to our starter guide for more information on picking a target, which gives a number of reasons and ideas for campaigns targeting businesses, universities and cities. (Transition in Action website)
If politics is the ‘art of the possible’, campaigning is the science and art of changing what is possible. Campaigning lowers the barriers and increases the incentives to take action.
Director International Development at Canadian Red Cross