In a world where rising temperatures and growing energy inequality has become a reality, the story of energy transition – is often talked about in terms of megawatts installed, emissions avoided, and investments mobilised. But can technology and policy alone make this giant shift to affordable, clean energy? Or does this transition also require something more fragile, more potent, and often underestimated belief? And if it does so, how does that belief come into being? Can storytelling and effective communication shape that?

The Missing Layer in the Energy Discourse:
Over the past decade, we have seen extraordinary gains in renewable energy capacity, falling solar costs, and governments from Delhi to D.C. pledging to achieve net-zero goals. There is still a deeper disconnect, though. Many communities perceive the energy transition as abstract, elite story that is far away from everyday needs like clean fuel for cooking, access to reliable and affordable electricity, or even protection from extreme climate events.

And this disconnection is not just incidental – it is communicative. Energy policy discussions are often very high level, complex, punctuated by jargons, acronyms, and sometimes difficult-to understand modelling. The lived reality, such as a farmer dealing with diesel pump expenses, a woman waiting for hours for the load shedding to end, or a child learning by a streetlight, is rarely included in the narrative. So, until we bridge this gap between energy as numbers and energy as experience, we risk a transition that may neither be inclusive nor lasting.

WHY STORIES MATTER:
Stories give shape to imagination. They show people not just what is, but what could be. They humanise data, localise ideas, and often contribute towards building the emotional urgency required for collective change. This is not romanticism. It’s strategy. At the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India), we have learned this firsthand. Over the years, our research has illuminated the need of expanding access to reliable and affordable energy. We know that electric utilities in many developing countries often don’t get fully paid by consumers for the power they supply.

In Bihar, for instance, a study led by EPIC researchers found that non-payment of bills leads to widespread outages and rationing of power and this poor electricity access may be a consequence of society treating electricity as a right rather than a commodity to be bought and sold. But that was the topline finding and numbers alone didn’t tell the full story. When we paired this research with community narratives that was stitched into a film, crafted opinion pieces targeting the root cause of this cyclic problem and got media interested in reporting it, the findings found deeper traction among local policymakers, civil society leaders, and even media mentions shaping public discourse.

Similarly, in another EPIC study on Delhi’s odd-even car rationing scheme, we found that the odd-even program could only be treated as an emergency measure during winter months when car emissions play a more prominent role in affecting air quality – and not as a tool that could be effective across seasons.