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Short abstract:

The concept of energy justice has emerged as a powerful tool for bringing political ideals in the complex study of energy transitions. But it's all very utopian. We're going to explain why.

Long abstract:

The concept of energy justice has emerged as a powerful tool for bringing political ideals into the complex study of energy transitions. With its “seeming universal appeal,” the quest for justice and the counterpart quest of injustice(s) is an offer one cannot refuse. Methodologically, however, the approach suffers from both justificationism and utopianism, a combination that affects equally the descriptive reconstructions of current status and the normative prescriptions of future directions. It neither offers insights into navigating value conflicts nor reflects imminent value change. In this paper, we argue that the energy justice approach needs an infusion of moral pluralism to escape the utopian chase of perceived ideals (or perceived dangers), and advance its approach to dealing with value conflicts and potential value changes. Our argument is two-pronged. On a theoretical level we show that moral pluralism covers some of the problems previously identified with the energy justice approach but often only implicitly; to build our argument in favor of moral pluralism we identify potential ethical dilemmas value conflicts and value changes may pose. On a practical level, we illustrate how moral pluralism can be explicitly applied to scrutinize current developments in the hydrogen transition (the move from fossil-based to ‘clean’ hydrogen), a transition that has recently caught the attention of energy justice scholars, and what insights about value conflicts and value changes such application has to reveal. We conclude with a list of practical action points for consolidating the marriage between energy justice and moral pluralism.

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Short abstract:

This research addresses asymmetries in the relations of knowledge production in renewable energy by integrating Indigenous knowledge and priorities into a promising but nascent field that explores how solar power can be embedded into agricultural systems.

Long abstract:

The deployment of renewable energy systems across vast landscapes across the world - expected to advance the transition from national reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy - brings with it questions of competing land uses, effects on soil and water systems, and implications for equity, justice, and Indigenous self-determination. Indigenous lands house considerable potential for renewable energy generation and are increasingly targeted in initiatives to transition countries away from fossil fuels. Yet top-down planning practices risk both violating the sovereignty of Indigenous nations and reproducing energy systems that mirror the monocropping, single land use mindset of large agribusiness. Our research contributes to the nascent body of research on the integration of solar energy into agricultural and other environmental systems by focusing on the co-design of integrated agroecological renewable systems to emphasize the multifaceted goals that may be achieved beyond or in synergy with crop and energy production that reflect additional goals of Indigenous communities. This project forges a convergent research paradigm that not only deeply integrates disciplinary modes of thinking from otherwise siloed fields, but also incorporates the values, knowledge, and priorities of Indigenous communities, thus confronting legacies of dispossession and demonstrating the potential of communities underrepresented in scientific research to contribute to research that can address society’s most urgent problems in both food system and energy system sustainability.

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Short abstract:

Applying recognition in energy contexts raises new questions and dilemmas of justice. This paper explores four dangers of recognition for energy justice. Critical reflection on struggles for recognition is important, as they can be emancipatory, or they can hinder energy justice.

Long abstract:

Energy justice scholars apply concepts of justice to energy infrastructure, policies, and technologies. Most scholars adopt a tenet framework that distinguishes different categories of justice, including the notion of recognition justice. Energy justice scholars generally share the assumption that recognition is just and that misrecognition should be battled. However, applying recognition in energy contexts raises new questions and dilemmas of justice that mirror recent critiques of Fraser’s and Honneth’s conceptions of recognition. Many authors claim that seeking and granting recognition is not necessarily morally good, but that recognition is either inherently ambivalent or dangerous, or that recognition can be morally undesirable. This discussion takes place in critical theory and it has not yet reached the field of energy justice. In other words, recognition might have a dark side that is not yet accounted for. This paper explores the dangers of recognition for energy justice. Four dangers of recognition are identified: (1) recognition can reproduce unjust norms; (2) recognition can fix identities and cause polarization; (3) recognition can be dominating; and (4) recognition can distort what is actually at stake. The relevance of each danger for energy justice is illustrated through examples in empirical studies in energy contexts. In conclusion, I argue that recognition should not be seen as solely a positive phenomenon. It is important to critically reflect on struggles for recognition, as they can be emancipatory, or they can hinder energy justice.

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Short abstract:

This study explores a systematic way of understanding normative diversity in participatory decision-making for energy transitions. It uses three case studies to identify energy justice imaginaries and their relation to the scale of decision-making and the energy technology being decided upon.

Long abstract:

Policymakers encounter diverse views on justice in participatory decision-making processes for energy transitions. Understanding this diversity of views will aid in making decisions that have considered all perspectives, thereby avoiding the unintentional exclusion of actors. This paper aims to enhance this understanding, especially of the points of conflict and agreement between perspectives. The study approaches justice perspectives as imaginaries. To allow for systematic differentiation between imaginaries, it expands upon the dominant tenet-based framework using empirical data and recent insights from energy justice research to identify central elements of energy justice imaginaries, such as principles of justice, moral grounds and values. The paper focuses on the Netherlands and asks: How are imaginaries of a just energy transition in the Netherlands influenced by the energy technologies being decided upon and the scale of participatory decision-making?

The study aims to identify imaginaries institutionalized in energy policies and held by a variety of societal actors. It will do so through the analysis of three case studies on participatory decision-making for different types of energy infrastructure (wind turbines, heat and electricity grids) and on different political scales (municipal, provincial and national). Imaginaries will be identified through observations during decision-making processes, interviews and a document analysis of relevant policy documents. The paper aims to shed light on notable differences in actors’ imaginaries in relation to the scale at and the technology about which a decision needs to be made. In addition, it aims to find general patterns in energy justice imaginaries in the Netherlands.

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Short abstract:

Energy storage systems are seen as critical to meeting international decarbonisation policies. However, the social and spatial engagement with the artefact is understudied are requires attention. The paper provides a thematic review of literature on other energy infrastructures using an STS lens.

Long abstract:

Energy storage systems, in particular battery systems (BESS) are seen as paramount to meeting decarbonisation agendas in the UK and internationally. However, ways of planning, consultation, and delivery shape both residents and decision-makers’ perceptions of social and spatial implications remain unknown and understudied. The purpose of this paper is to review literature on the social and spatial implications of energy infrastructures, paying close attention to pre- and post-delivery processes as experienced by both decision-makers and residents. The literature review draws on an STS lens and semi-systematic approach to examine ways studies have engaged with the dynamic relationship between energy infrastructure artefacts, delivery processes and communities proximal to the installations. The review included a total of 142 papers. Overall, the review found that the socio-material role of the energy infrastructure artefact shifted from being part of a global need to meet decarbonisation targets at the pre-delivery stages to one of local socio, economic and material impact post-delivery. The shifting of role of energy infrastructures from one of global need and imagined material features to one of local impact and situated physical properties offers new insights on energy transitions research. First, it suggests greater need to study shifting scales of understanding the impacts these infrastructures have on local communities, from both global to local need and impact. Second, it indicates that a finer grain understanding of social and spatial implications of energy infrastructures could contribute to an increased command of the values and roles energy infrastructures are attributed in the energy transition.

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Short abstract:

The talk explores through a case study how a place-based participatory methodology for imagining socio-technical futures can help demonstrate the relevance and utility of responsible innovation as an approach for evaluating the desirability of particular energy system transition pathways.

Long abstract:

Decarbonizing energy systems is an ambitious sociotechnical project, with significant implications for social and environmental justice, given that it will involve transitioning towards systems based on distributed energy generation and new networked forms of system flexibility. It will be a spatially uneven process, creating a range of socio-technical configurations in response to different geographical contexts. Further, its impact on different kinds of community (urban, rural, peri-urban) will be various, as it transforms how energy is produced, distributed and consumed. The relevance of responsible innovation (RI) as a way of evaluating and shaping pathways to energy transition has therefore been argued for. However, developing the principles and practices of RI in ways which translate this relevance into actual application remains difficult. RI has not typically focused on socio-technical systems, nor has it been developed in ways which reflect the spatial dimensions mentioned above.

This presentation explores some potential ways forward for RI and energy transition, focusing on FLEXIS, an interdisciplinary energy engineering and social science project in Wales, UK, and its place-based approach to upstream engagement for responsible development of energy transition pathways. It examines how findings from interpretative risk research and scholarship on energy and everyday life can help design upstream participatory processes that address not only system transition, but also its potential effects on place and on everyday life. It shows how engaging community residents in place-based creation of potential energy futures can enlarge understanding of the local and systemic aspects of transition, evaluate expert proposals, and expand the range of pathways that may be considered by linking the socio-economic and socio-cultural pasts of communities to their energy futures.

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Short abstract:

This paper delves into the ethical dimensions of the green hydrogen transition, exploring the intrinsic societal and environmental values underpinning this transformative energy shift.

Long abstract:

The transition to green hydrogen stands as a pivotal juncture in the global pursuit of sustainable energy solutions. This abstract presents an upcoming qualitative research paper, "Unveiling Ethical Foundations: The Role of Values in Green Hydrogen Transition," focusing on the ethical underpinnings shaping this evolution. This study emphasizes qualitative methodologies, incorporating in-depth interviews with eminent figures in the green hydrogen domain and a thorough analysis of existing scholarly literature. Given the disputable nature of green hydrogen, the research seeks to unravel the ethical dimensions that influence the adoption and development of this technology. By delving into stakeholders' perspectives and industry thought leaders' insights, the paper aims to shed light on the societal and environmental values intertwined with the green hydrogen transition. Furthermore, through rigorous qualitative assessments and dialogues with experts, this inquiry additionally seeks to offer vital insights into the values driving the green hydrogen revolution and their broader impact on the energy landscape. The research also aims to critically examine differing viewpoints and potential ethical challenges within the field, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the ethical implications of green hydrogen as a leading energy alternative.

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Short abstract:

Exploring Positive Energy Districts' role in the urban energy transformation of the EU, this study highlights the lines of conflict between innovation and values such as equity and inclusivity, advocating for a restorative justice approach to address normative uncertainties.

Long abstract:

This paper critically examines the development and implementation of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the European Union, focusing on their potential to address or exacerbate structural injustices within urban energy transformations. By employing a document-based critical thematic analysis, the study unveils how PEDs, despite their innovative approach to decarbonization and energy efficiency, risk overlooking the intricate realities of structural injustices, thereby potentially perpetuating existing social inequalities. The research underscores the conflict between technocentric decarbonization efforts and the need for social sustainability, highlighting the tension between economic viability and social equity, as well as the preference for new building developments over retrofitting existing structures. Through a restorative justice lens, the paper proposes strategies to embed social equity and participatory governance in the planning and implementation of PEDs, aiming to ensure that urban energy transformations contribute to a just and inclusive future. By providing empirical insights into the emerging lines of conflict between value systems and energy transitions, the paper advocates for an integrated approach that prioritizes environmental integrity alongside social justice. This research contributes to the panel by providing a deeper understanding of the normative challenges and opportunities presented by energy system transformations, proposing pathways to navigate the complexities of aligning energy innovations with societal values.

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Short abstract:

The identification of socio-technical visions highlights the societal choices embedded in technological trajectories, reformist and influential visions and the need for a deeper societal and academic debate on energy and industrial transitions.

Long abstract:

Policymakers have recently started to address energy and industrial transitions. Several intertwined directions for these transitions have emerged such as demand-side interventions, electrification, hydrogen and sustainable fuels. Leading scholars are mapping systems, innovations and policy options (Chung et al., 2023), contexts and company strategies (Geels & Gregory, 2023), alignment challenges (Geels et al., 2023) and collective-oriented governance strategies (Schultz et al., 2023), while cautiously highlighting differences between technical, economic, political and socioenvironmental interpretations (Sovacool et al., 2023).

Yet these academics, as well as policymakers, downplay the struggles over the nature of future energy and industrial systems. In this context, ‘very few theories, even in the core, deal with a conceptualization of power, power relations, and power dynamics.’ (Sovacool, et al., 2023 p. 16), while energy technologies and transitions have an irreducibly political character intertwined with values, agency, responsibility, power and exclusion (e.g. Buck, 2021; Kloo et al., 2024; Tilsted et al., 2022).

We build on the emerging literature on the politics of energy and industrial transitions by applying a framework on socio-technical visions (Longhurst & Chilvers, 2019) to a large project on sustainable fuels. Using qualitative research, we identify five socio-technical visions. Three contributions are made to the literature on energy and industrial transitions: a) we elucidate the choices and values embedded in technological trajectories, b) three visions are reformist and highly influential, c) these choices should form the basis for a deeper societal and academic debate on energy and industrial transitions.

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Short abstract:

This paper investigates the contending visions and practices of energy justice amongst community energy groups and intermediaries. Three visions of just energy futures emerged from the data with varying degrees of institutional prominence, revealing an uneasy landscape of normative contestations.

Long abstract:

The UK’s Community Energy sector is a grassroots-led movement that tackles the country's decarbonisation and fuel poverty challenges by building community-scale renewable projects and directing funds towards low-income households. Comparative studies indicate that community energy initiatives are more durable and engage citizens more deeply than public and private counterparts. Some scholars emphasise the importance of community energy intermediaries in aggregating knowledge across the sector and engaging in policy advocacy and argue that these intermediaries should be strengthened to support energy justice practices. However, less is known about how community groups and intermediaries across the sector understand energy justice. Drawing on the conceptual lenses of sociotechnical imaginaries and critical niche perspectives, this paper investigates the contending visions and practices of energy justice amongst community energy groups and intermediaries. Through qualitative interviews with 15 community energy groups and 5 community energy intermediaries, the paper finds a core institutionally stabilised imaginary (Alternative Economy), an emerging imaginary that is not yet institutionally supported by intermediaries (Just Transition), and a critical niche perspective that challenges the sector’s claims to represent diverse communities (Beyond Inclusion). These visions revealed an uneasy landscape wherein diverse actors from across the CE sector and beyond are committed to specific understandings of energy justice and are competing to make theirs dominant. Systemic inequalities and hierarchies within the UK’s energy system and the CE sector shape how and why these energy justice visions formed alongside their prospects for institutional stability.

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Short abstract:

China's energy investment and policies illustrate the ambiguities of the international scenario. One observes moves toward green and renewable alternatives while carbon lock-in persists through coal investments. This paper examines pieces of evidence and discusses prospects for a just transition.

Long abstract:

Public and private actors implied in the Chinese energy transition process direct resources and power influencing energy dynamics. Some efforts strengthen and others weaken political and institutional path-dependences and lock-in of the incumbent regimen. (MORI, 2018). China's energy investment and policies illustrate the ambiguities of the international scenario. One observes moves toward green and renewable alternatives while carbon lock-in persists through coal investments. This paper examines pieces of evidence and discusses prospects for a just transition. In the chess of energy transitions, China is a big player on the global scene, playing on two chessboards: the domestic and the international. On the domestic one, investments seem to point towards a renewable energy transition, with analysts pointing to the case of important initiatives to strengthen renewable technologies, as is the case in Beijing (XIE; COLTON, 2022). Besides, Shenzhen, China's first Special Economic Zone, is considered a demonstration pilot in green cities in China, with leadership in renewable energy projects (LIANG et al, 2022). However, there is also evidence showing the interest of incumbent regime actors in recovering capital through investments in coal-fired plants in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam (MORI, 2018; GALLAGHER et al, 2021). One argument is that these pieces of evidence have implications that may jeopardize climate change mitigation efforts and a just, low-carbon energy transition (CLARK; ZUCKER; URPELAINEN, 2020; EDIANTO; TRENCHER; MATSUBAE, 2022). This case from China reality illustrates key issues on the materiality of the intrinsic conflictual nature of energy investments that call for normative thinking.

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Short abstract:

The paper offers an analysis of Polish energy policies developed by the right-wing populist coalition in the years 2014-2023. Our focus lies on the normative orientations within the analyzed material with particular attention to contesting urgency and hindering decarbonization.

Long abstract:

Background of the Study:

The ongoing energy transition, characterized by reduced reliance on fossil fuels, presents significant challenges for societies. This is particularly pertinent in Poland, the most coal-dependent country in the EU, where decarbonization and the urgency have been explicitly hindered during the past decade of right-wing populist coalition rule.

Purpose of the Study, Methods, and Data:

In this paper, we employ political discourse analysis with elements of argumentation theory. We examine the practical argumentation present in the energy policies (a collection of 10 documents) formulated between 2014 and 2023 by the right-wing Law and Justice government. The analysis is computer-assisted with MaxQDA software. Our focus lies on the normative orientations within the analyzed material, which justify the proliferation of carbon-based development strategies while contesting the urgency of decarbonization.

Expected Outcomes:

We identify two fundamental normative claims used to contest urgency deceleration of decarbonization: 1. the competitiveness of the economy, and 2. energy security. Both are further bolstered by resentment towards the European Union's climate and energy policies, with EU policies being rhetorically downplayed as "uncertainties." Notably, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, similar normative orientations, oriented toward partisan national interests, are no longer exclusive to right-wing populist narratives and have emerged as a challenge across the EU.

Novelty of the Study:

The paper underscores the significance of temporality, including the urgency category as a crucial normative aspect that should be considered in public policies concerning climate change, energy transition, and related issues.

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Short abstract:

This paper explores the moral frontiers of the energy transition through the case of natural gas expansion in Ghana and its contradictions.

Long abstract:

In Ghana, new oil and gas discoveries at a time of global decarbonization and energy transition have put into question the future of the country’s hydrocarbon reserves and its promises of prosperity and development. As Ghana anticipates the risk of stranded assets, a discourse of carbon justice has emerged around new oil and gas extraction. In this paper, I explore the assemblage of the “moral frontiers” of the energy transition through the case of natural gas expansion in Ghana. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since 2019, I focus on the Atuabo gas processing plant in Ghana's Western Region, which was built in 2016 in the midst of an acute energy crisis to secure the country’s energy future by processing indigenous gas from the oilfields to power the nation’s electricity grid. Amidst growing opposition to and declining investment in oil, natural gas in Atuabo is presented as a bridging fuel that reconciles, physically and ethically, the contradictions of global decarbonization imperatives with local demands for industrialization, energy access, security and sovereignty. Building on the literature on just transitions, technopolitics and infrastructures, I argue that the materiality of gas infrastructure in Atuabo (including the land acquisition and tenure process, the siting of the plant, the take-or-pay model of the IPPs it powers, the pricing of gas, and the contested environmental impact of the plant) shapes moral and political claims about carbon justice, responsibility, autonomy and independence that speak to the contestation and contradictions of energy transitions elsewhere.

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Short abstract:

This paper investigates the types of institutional work through which energy transitions can be realigned with social justice outcomes. Drawing on a contentious case study of a wind farm and a data center, it shows how the relationship between infrastructure and justice is continuously remade.

Long abstract:

A key question for academics and practitioners alike is how values, including those pertaining to social justice, can be ‘written’ into the financing of energy infrastructures. This question of ‘coding’ infrastructure is not well understood and, as we will show, hardly studied in the literature on sustainability transitions. Drawing on a conceptual framework connecting discourse, policy and infrastructure, we try and make sense of how this process of coding infrastructure works.

The empirical focus of this paper is on a national controversy over the parallel planning of a large-scale, community owned wind park and a hyperscale data center in the municipality of Zeewolde, The Netherlands. In the past years, The Netherlands has witnessed a significant growth of investments in renewable energy, especially for large-scale infrastructures. This ‘scaling up’ raises new questions about the geographic spread of energy production and (industrial) consumption. In our paper we consider the wind park and data center not as neutral technologies, but as actively shaped ‘infrastructure configurations’. The analytical starting point forms identification of the material, spatial, financial and social forms of the wind park and the planned data center. Theoretically, we draw on the Triple Re-Cycle (Hoffman et al 2020) to ‘follow’ and analyze how these ‘configurations’ and their social justice outcomes are the products of the institutional work involved in i) reimagining the direction of the energy transition, ii) the recoding of policies and iii) the actual reconfiguring of infrastructure. Methodologically, we trace back in time how these configurations have come about and continue to be the object of institutional work.

We find that the political dynamics around the ‘coding’ of the infrastructures involved center stretch back in time as far as 25 years. In this case, the nature of these dynamics had everything be explained by the initial absence of a stable policy regime; one capable of stabilizing certain codes in the rules and processes guiding investment decisions. Interestingly, the absence of a stable regime was not just a problem, it also came with the creative potential, which regional policy actors could draw upon to strategically reposition themselves.