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Energy Justice in a Changing Climate

Energy Justice in a Changing Climate

Karen Bickerstaff | Gordon Walker | Harriet Bulkeley

(2013)

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Abstract

Energy justice is one of the most critical, and yet least developed, concepts associated with sustainability. Much has been written about the sustainability of low-carbon energy systems and policies - with an emphasis on environmental, economic and geopolitical issues. However, less attention has been directed at the social and equity implications of these dynamic relations between energy and low-carbon objectives - the complexity of injustice associated with whole energy systems (from extractive industries, through to consumption and waste) that transcend national boundaries and the social, political-economic and material processes driving the experience of energy injustice and vulnerability. Drawing on a substantial body of original research from an international collaboration of experts this unique collection addresses energy poverty, just innovation, aesthetic justice and the justice implications of low-carbon energy systems and technologies. The book offers new thinking on how interactions between climate change, energy policy, and equity and social justice can be understood and develops a critical agenda for energy justice research.
'This book does a great job of highlighting the energy vulnerabilities of households and communities along with the social justice implications of various policies and practices that promote lower carbon energy systems. Particularly important is how it brings contemporary social theories to the understanding of energy justice, and the critical analysis offered of proposed lower carbon technologies such as microgeneration, microgrids, nuclear and CCS.' Diana Liverman, Regents Professor in the School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona 'Energy Justice in a Changing Climate is a wide-ranging and timely exploration of the justice and vulnerability issues associated with decarbonizing energy systems in the global North. It combines conceptual frameworks from the social sciences with original case material to highlight the equity and justice implications of low-carbon energy technologies, infrastructures and policies. Furthermore, it marks a significant shift in thinking about energy futures in a warming world, away from a narrow consideration of carbon management and towards a concern with how low-carbon energy systems (re)shape inequalities in energy access and social power.' Gavin Bridge, Professor of Economic Geography, Durham University 'Climate change produces injustice - and the authors of this book argue powerfully that policies to mitigate it are paradoxically in danger of having the same effect. The remedy is a clearer understanding of the processes that drive mitigation injustice and Energy Justice in a Changing Climate provides exactly that understanding.' Andrew Dobson, Keele University
Karen Bickerstaff is senior lecturer in geography at Exeter University and leads the department’s Environment and Sustainability Research Group. Her research interests centre on public engagements with technological risk, innovation and low-carbon transformations. Recent projects have examined nuclear waste policy and controversy in the UK, the efficacy of domestic energy efficiency interventions and the ethical dimensions of low-carbon energy technologies. She led the Interdisciplinary Cluster on Energy Systems, Equity and Vulnerability (InCluESEV), running from 2009 to 2012, which has fostered an international collaborative network developing new ways of thinking about, and researching, energy vulnerability and justice. Gordon Walker is professor of risk, environment and justice at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University. He researches and writes across a wide agenda, including matters of environmental justice, energy demand, social practice, socio-technical transitions, community innovation and renewable energy technologies, and the governance of forms of ‘natural’ and technological risk. He has led a series of research projects on these themes funded by the UK research councils, the European Union and government departments. His most recent book is Environmental Justice: Concepts, evidence and politics, and he is currently co-director of the Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand (DEMAND) research centre. Harriet Bulkeley is professor of geography at Durham University. Her research interests are the nature and politics of environmental governance, and focus on climate change, energy and urban sustainability. Her recent books include Cities and Climate Change: Critical introductions to the city (2013), Governing Climate Change (with Peter Newell, 2010) and Cities and Low Carbon Transitions (with Vanesa Castan-Broto, Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin, eds, 2011). She has undertaken a number of research projects funded by the ESRC, EPSRC and Leverhulme Trust, and is currently co-investigator for the Ofgem-funded Customer Led Network Revolution project on smart electricity grids (2011-14) and an ESRC project examining the role of China and Brazil in low-carbon transitions in southern Africa. Harriet was appointed an adviser to DECC in 2012, and she has undertaken commissioned research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, UNHabitat and the World Bank.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover Front cover
Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning, and Practice i
About the editors ii
Title iii
Copyright iv
Contents v
Figure and tables vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: making sense of energy justice 1
Current concerns: energy poverty and the politics of consumption 2
Justice and energy systems in transition 4
Towards energy justice? 6
Emerging research themes and agendas 8
1 Household energy vulnerability as ‘assemblage’ 14
Introduction 14
Understanding assemblage 16
Assemblage and energy vulnerability 19
Discussion and concluding comments 26
Acknowledgements 29
2 Precarious domesticities: energy vulnerability among urban young adults 30
Introduction 30
Housing young adults in the UK: unresolved urban and energy policy questions 31
Overarching trends in the case study area 34
Table 2.1 Percentages of individuals responding affirmatively to different statements in the questionnaire survey 36
Experiences of fuel poverty 37
Landlords, housing careers and being ‘heard’ locally 40
Conclusion 44
3 Energy justice in sustainability transitions research 46
Introduction 46
Sustainability transitions theory 49
Integrating energy justice in sustainability transitions research 59
4 Energy justice and the low-carbon transition: assessing low-carbon community programmes in the UK 61
Introduction 61
Conceptualizing energy justice in the context of climate change 62
Table 4.1 Multiple dimensions of justice 64
Energy justice and low-carbon communities 65
The emergence of low-carbon communities in the UK 69
Assessing the justice dimensions of low-carbon community programmes 70
Table 4.2 Selected UK low-carbon community programmes 72
Table 4.3 Definition of community in low-carbon community programmes 76
Conclusions 77
5 Energy justice and climate change: reflections from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation research programme 79
Introduction 79
Distributional justice issues 82
Procedural justice issues 87
Conclusion 89
6 Equity across borders: a whole-systems approach to micro-generation 91
Introduction 91
6.1 Fuel mix for the UK 92
Whole-systems analysis 93
Equity in the context of micro-generation 94
Methodology development 95
6.2 Schematic representation of the whole-systems approach and cross-cutting themes 96
Table 6.1 Output from the SWOT analysis 97
6.3 Equity assessment framework 98
Using the equity framework to evaluate the equity aspects of the UK case studies 99
Table 6.2 Case study detail 100
International case studies – Greece 105
6.4 Fuel mix for Greece 105
Table 6.3 Summary of Greek case studies 106
International case study – Japan 108
6.5 Fuel mix for Japan 109
Table 6.4 Summary of Japanese case study 110
Concluding comments 112
7 Fair distribution of power-generating capacity: justice, micro-grids and utilizing the common pool of renewable energy 116
Introduction 116
Starting point: institutions 117
The significance of smart microgrids for distributed generation 118
7.1 ‘A network of integrated microgrids that can monitor and heal itself’ 120
Smart grid innovation 122
Acceptance of institutional change for energy innovation 124
7.2 Three dimensions of social acceptance of renewable energy innovations 124
The community and collective action perspective 126
Justice as fairness 128
DisGenMiGrids for all? 129
Renewable energy: a Common Pool natural resource 132
Future developments 135
8 Framing energy justice in the UK: the nuclear case 139
Introduction 139
Nuclear energy, ethics and justice: concepts, applications and developments 140
Framing ‘energy justice’ in the nuclear context: exploring the UK case 145
Concluding discussion 154
9 Justice in energy system transitions: the case of carbon capture and storage 158
Introduction 158
Energy justice, participation and instrumentalism 159
Low-carbon energy systems and embedding principles of procedural justice 163
Table 9.1 Principles of procedural justice 166
Applying the WSP framework: justice and CCS 167
9.1 Potential impacts across the CCS development chain 168
Conclusions 178
Acknowledgements 181
About the contributors 182
Notes 187
Bibliography 189
Introduction 189
1 Day and Walker 190
2 Bouzarovski et al. 193
3 Eames and Hunt 194
4 Fuller and Bulkeley 197
5 Knox 199
6 Adams et al. 200
7 Wolsink 202
8 Butler and Simmons 205
9 McLaren et al. 208
Index 216