A bold and refreshing vision for Britain’s energy future was spelled out by Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy and climate change secretary, at the Labour Party conference. It wasn’t only about her commitment to clean energy — she spoke of Labour’s plans to “democratise” energy in Britain, by putting “people back in charge.”

With 7 million people in Britain living in fuel poverty and one in seven globally living without access to energy, Labour’s vision for a fairer energy system is much needed.

Global Justice Now has been a fierce advocate of energy democracy — both here and globally — that would mean energy is fairly distributed, democratically controlled and managed to recognise the planet’s limits.

As Nandy rightly explained, moving to “community-based energy companies and co-operatives” could provide a “new powerhouse” in Britain and ensure a more just energy system for us all.

Energy municipalisation — giving the people back control of their energy system — is an effective way of challenging the monopoly held by the big six energy companies, which currently sees fuel poverty for millions in Britain and increasingly unaffordable energy bills.

Critics of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet might attempt to accuse Nandy of “pie in the sky” idealism, but the fact is that this transition to energy democracy has already taken root and is thriving in many parts of the world.

Here’s a taste of just three of them.

- In Nottingham the local council has set up a not-for-profit energy supplier — Robin Hood Energy — and estimates it can save customers up to £237 a year on bills. Already their first customer has had their annual energy bill cut from £2,000 to £1,400. Companies like Robin Hood Energy run for people, rather than just for profit, demonstrate real alternatives to the big six’s domination of energy markets.

- Much has been written about Energiewende, Germany’s transition not only from fossil fuel generated power but also from centralised to decentralised energy production.

In Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, citizens voted in September 2013 for their local council to buy back the energy grid from multinational companies Eon and Vattenfall. The change came following the Our Hamburg, Our Grid campaign, which argued that these companies were failing to act in the best interest of local people and were delaying the shift to renewable energy. Similar plans are being discussed in Berlin too.

- Uruguay is one country with public ownership of its energy system, which is showing how a more just energy system could be achieved.

The government has set ambitious targets for both ensuring everyone has access to energy and also shifting to more sustainable energy sources, both for electricity generation and for other services such as transport.

To date, 99 per cent of the population of Uruguay has access to electricity and almost two-thirds is produced from renewable sources. Energy efficiency also plays a major role in Uruguay’s plans to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The labour movement in Uruguay not only played a major role in fighting off attempts to privatise the energy sector in 1992, it is now engaging in proposals to democratise the state-owned energy company UTE.

When energy privatisation has proved such a disaster in Britain and in so many other parts of the world, it seems ludicrous that the Department for International Development (DfID) is determined to use aid money to implement this failed model of energy privatisation in countries such as Nigeria.

DfID is presently spending nearly £100 million of aid money — via free-market fundamentalists Adam Smith International — to support the privatisation of Nigeria’s energy system through a program called the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility.

Ken Henshaw from Social Action in Nigeria said that when he met with DfID over the disastrous programme, “they admitted the privatisation has failed, but when I talked about energy democracy, about communities owning and generating their own renewable electricity, it seemed they’d never thought of that.”

This persistent adoption of energy neoliberalism isn’t restricted to DfID — it has characterised numerous government departments, from the Treasury through to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Nandy’s speech at the Labour conference is finally breaking with this dated consensus and pointing the way to what a modern and forward-thinking energy system might look like — just, sustainable and democratised.

•  Read Global Justice Now’s briefing Rays of Hope at www.globaljustice.org.uk/resources/rays-hope