Search Results (142)

This paper explores the place of technological interventions in the conceptualisation of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus (WEF Nexus). The focus is on the just infrastructure interventions required to decarbonise and adapt to the challenges of the climate crisis for sustainable livelihoods. We explore the overlap between two bodies of work, the WEF Nexus and Socio-Technical Systems, grown from different disciplinary perspectives, to scrutinise the extent to which there is a coherent synthesis of work that can examine infrastructure impacts and trade-offs in a WEF system. Following a systematic literature review and analysis, a framework is proposed for water and energy infrastructure interventions to both support sustainable development and recognise infrastructure’s role in a just and equitable society. This framework will support the creation of models that are less likely to miss vital components of a system or potential trade-offs and supports a multi-disciplinary approach to infrastructure interventions. Full article

Energy justice remains relatively under-researched outside of the Western context, especially in Asia. This paper addresses that gap by investigating the process of energy transition in Taiwan through the socio-spatial lens and institutional points of view. The paper underscores the urgency of recognizing and addressing the overlooked social injustices across different territories, advocating an integrated planning approach that incorporates a just energy transition perspective to reduce the uneven negative impacts of deploying renewable energies across communities and regional territories. Drawing on a case study of the Changhua region, the paper identifies conflicts arising from the rapid deployment of renewable energy, such as land use changes that displace farming activities and negatively affect rural stakeholders. The findings suggest the need to urgently address the gap between top–down goals in energy transition and bottom–up considerations to raise awareness and prevent injustices that risk deepening the existing socio-economic inequities. This paper also proposes a new framework for both new research and policy for (just) energy transition, incorporating distributional, procedural, and recognitional concerns together with a critical view on the cross-scale and cross-sectoral integration as part of the spatial planning process. Full article

Citizen-driven approaches are promising to overcome the challenges in the energy transition of geographical islands. However, the economic profitability of related activities must be ensured to achieve the intrinsic and sustainable uptake of related solutions in an island’s communities. Here, we investigate the long-term (2020–2054) economic profitability of solar-based prosumption on islands belonging to the European Union (EU), soft-linking energy system modelling and actor-related cash-flow analysis. This combination considerably extends common assessments of the profitability of renewable energy technology and long-term projections of island energy systems. We base our case study on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, discussing household affordability and the socio-economic impact of prosumerism. These topics are relevant to transferability on non-EU islands. The profitability of investments in PV depends on (i) the size of the PV system, with larger systems (>9 kWp) profiting from lower specific investment costs compared to smaller systems; (ii) the time of investment, with more profitable investments to be expected in early periods; (iii) the level of decarbonization of the entire energy sector, with an ongoing decarbonization reducing the compensation or energy-saving possibilities; and (iv) the market behavior, with the practice of feeding in all electricity produced rather than self-consuming energy offering a higher expected return on investment under current feed-in-tariff (FiT) compensation schemes. We introduce various policy measures to improve solar rooftop PV profitability and discuss their trade-offs and effectiveness. While indirect subsidies via FiT are generally effective in improving PV profitability, they undermine efforts to incentivize decentralized self-consumption. From the perspective of harmonizing efforts in the energy transition of African and European islands, we recommend a careful evaluation of the trade-offs in relevant regulations required for the economic incentivization of prosumers to achieve compatibility with the principles of a citizen-driven and just energy transition. Particular attention must be paid to context-specific socio-economic characteristics, including low access to financial resources and non-financial access barriers, including legal status. Full article

Energy distribution justice is of primary concern within the energy justice framework and it is crucial to increase public acceptance of offshore wind energy and further advance its development. The rapid development of offshore wind energy in China has inevitably impacted the livelihoods of coastal vulnerable groups (CVGs) engaged in fisheries and tourism in the coastal zone. While current policies often compensate for livelihood losses through cash payments, the fiscal strain caused by COVID-19 renders this approach unsustainable. Consequently, this research pioneers the exploration of Chinese tourist groups’ landscape preferences towards offshore wind farms (OWFs). This study proposes a new approach to enhance OWF landscapes for tourism development, thereby balancing the distribution of costs and benefits between CVGs and tourists. The research focuses on Beihai City in the Beibu Gulf Economic Region, utilizing a combination of Q-methodology and choice experiments that incorporates cut-offs. Answers to eighty Q-methodology questionnaires and 1324 choice experiment questionnaires are obtained. The findings indicate that this region can achieve energy distribution justice by compensating for the livelihood losses of CVGs through tourism. Contrary to traditional assumptions about wind farm noise preferences, Chinese tourists prefer proximity to OWFs, as an appropriate coastal acoustics landscape can enhance their tourism experience. In light of these findings, this paper presents policy recommendations towards energy distribution justice. Full article

This research addresses a critical gap in the literature by establishing a direct correlation between particle pollution from fine particulates (PM2.5) and women’s political participation. It offers a nuanced understanding of gender dynamics in governance and their impact on environmental outcomes. Focusing on 27 European Union (EU) countries from 2013 to 2021, econometric techniques unveil common trends, underscoring cross-sectional dependence. This study reveals distinct gender behaviors in combating pollution, with women in parliaments and regional assemblies notably contributing to pollutant reduction. However, the negative impact of women’s engagement in politics on PM2.5 intensifies the lower part of the representation hierarchy. Policymakers are urged to create conditions fostering women’s political participation, advocating for gender quotas to address underrepresentation. The research emphasizes the interconnectedness of gender, politics, and environmental issues, urging heightened awareness among policymakers. Limitations include a confined scope and duration, requiring cross-validation beyond the EU. Future research pathways involve exploring the intricate connections between gender, politics, and environmental initiatives, seeking thresholds for impactful women’s representation. In contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study aligns with SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals). Full article

The problem of power grid capacity expansion focuses on adding or modernizing generation and transmission resources to respond to the rise in demand over a long-term planning period. Traditionally, the problem has been mainly viewed from technical and financial perspectives. However, with the rise in the frequency and severity of natural disasters and their dire impacts on society, it is paramount to consider the problem from a nexus of resilience, sustainability, and equity. This paper presents a novel multi-objective optimization framework to perform power grid capacity planning, while balancing the cost of operation and expansion with the life cycle impacts of various technologies. Further, to ensure equity in grid resilience, a social vulnerability metric is used to weigh the energy not served based on the capabilities (or lack thereof) of communities affected by long-duration power outages. A case study is developed for part of the bulk power system in the state of Colorado. The findings of the study show that, by considering life cycle impacts alongside cost, grid expansion solutions move towards greener alternatives because the benefits of decommissioning fossil-fuel-based generation outweigh the costs associated with deploying new generation resources. Furthermore, an equity-based approach ensures that socially vulnerable populations are less impacted by disaster-induced, long-duration power outages. Full article

The article analyses the evolution of the social dimension in energy security transition in Lithuania. It contributes to an emerging attempt in the literature to broaden the horizons of our understanding of societal transformation and energy transitions. The analysis reveals the interdependence of changing Lithuanian society and its developing energy security concerns throughout the Independence period, from the importance of material threats (ecological, economic, and political) to post-material values (such as climate change concerns) in the context of energy security. Accordingly, the energy sector undergoes a vivid transition from a totally dependent “Energy Island” to a diversified, interconnected, and self-sustainable system. Such a journey inevitably resulted in the highlight of the social dimension in energy security and provoked certain socio-economic implications, like changing public awareness and participation, social equity and justice, and socio-economic resilience and vulnerability. The research is based on case study principles (applying sociological discourse analysis through scientific articles’ qualitative content analysis method as well as energy security policy analysis reviewing all national strategies throughout the Independence period) and is focused on a unique Lithuanian context. Full article

Smart cities can be viewed as expansive systems that optimize operational quality and deliver a range of services, particularly in the realm of energy management. Identifying energy zones within smart cities marks an initial step towards ensuring equitable energy distribution driven by factors beyond energy considerations. This study introduces a socially oriented methodology for energy allocation during emergencies, implemented at the zone level to address justice concerns. The proposed method integrates a fuzzy leaky bucket model with an energy virtual buffer, leveraging extensive data from diverse city zones to allocate energy resources during emergent situations. By employing fuzzy sets and rules, the leaky bucket mechanism distributes buffered energy to zones, aiming to maximize energy utilization while promoting social justice principles. Evaluation of the approach utilizes consumption data from simulated smart city zones during energy-constrained emergencies, comparing it against a uniform allocation method. Results demonstrate the socially equitable allocation facilitated by the proposed methodology. Full article

The term sustainable energy is very familiar to all of us, yet its exact definition or meaning has so far been vague. To date, the widely adopted definition of sustainable energy has been inspired by the definition of sustainable development formulated more than 30 years ago in Our Common Future—the UN’s Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The current definition conceals the true spirit of the report, and this has some ramifications. It raises the question as to whether we have put too much emphasis on attaining the future dimension of sustainability in the middle of a situation where energy survivability is in fact the real issue in many parts of the world. In this paper, the role of energy in sustaining the livelihoods of low-income communities is discussed. The existing definition of sustainable energy that the whole world seems to have embraced is looked at critically and its downsides exposed. The identified pillars of sustainable energy and the associated issues are discussed, and the need for an additional pillar, i.e., affordability, is discussed and called for. This paper will argue that the global definition of sustainable energy seems inappropriate and should be jettisoned, and a more realistic definition should be formulated, adopted, and embraced at the local (i.e., national or regional) level taking into account local attributes and factors. The current push for a transition from the reliance on conventional energy sources to “cleaner” energy sources (generally associated with renewable energy) has further exacerbated the issue of energy affordability that has made the conditions even more dire for so many groups of the world’s population. In the midst of this situation, those who push for a rushed energy transition seem to be those who also produce an unsustainably high carbon footprint but who can easily offset their carbon footprint through the ‘net-zero’ concept. Full article

Urban wind energy has emerged as an attractive source of distributed generation in cities to achieve sustainable development goals. The advancement in technologies for the use of urban wind energy has offered an alternative for the decarbonization of cities and the energy transition. The objectives of this work are (1) to identify the potential of wind energy through numerical weather prediction (NWP) data tools and (2) to identify the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. A methodology was developed in two phases and applied to a case study in the Dominican Republic. The first phase consisted of estimating the wind energy potential for the 32 provinces at a height of 10 m using open access NWP tools provided by NASA. In the second phase, 28 stakeholders were identified through snowball sampling. The Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) matrix tool was applied to identify the roles of the 28 institutions addressed at the country level as relevant in the decision-making process for the energy sector. The annual average wind speed and energy potential for each province were determined. It was found that 24 provinces have poor potentials, below <4.5 m/s. In the northwest and east is where there is the greatest potential, between 4.83 and 6.63 m/s. The population density was established, and it was observed that the provinces with greater potential are less densely populated. Through 59 interviews, 28 institutions were identified and evaluated due to their relevance in decision making for the implementation of energy projects. According to the RACI matrix, the Ministry of Energy and Mines has been categorized as “A”, electricity distribution companies as “R”, energy associations and universities as “C”, and educational and justice institutions as “I”. Full article

This review explores the relationship between urban energy planning and smart city evolution, addressing three primary questions: How has research on smart cities and urban energy planning evolved in the past thirty years? What promises and hurdles do smart city initiatives introduce to urban energy planning? And why do some smart city projects surpass energy efficiency and emission reduction targets while others fall short? Based on a bibliometric analysis of 9320 papers published between January 1992 and May 2023, five dimensions were identified by researchers trying to address these three questions: (1) energy use at the building scale, (2) urban design and planning integration, (3) transportation and mobility, (4) grid modernization and smart grids, and (5) policy and regulatory frameworks. A comprehensive review of 193 papers discovered that previous research prioritized technological advancements in the first four dimensions. However, there was a notable gap in adequately addressing the inherent policy and regulatory challenges. This gap often led to smart city endeavors underperforming relative to their intended objectives. Overcoming the gap requires a better understanding of broader issues such as environmental impacts, social justice, resilience, safety and security, and the affordability of such initiatives. Full article

This research delves into the intricate realm of social housing flat units within tower blocks in Leicester, as a microcosm that serves as a perfect reflection of the larger problem of fuel poverty among social housing systems within the UK. The multifaceted approach intertwines energy efficiency upgrades, indoor comfort, and resident satisfaction. Rooted in a comprehensive methodology, this research seeks to address pressing societal challenges within these architectural projects, from fuel poverty and well-being to environmental sustainability and social justice. Through surveys, interviews, audits, simulations, and detailed analyses of summer and winter thermal performance, this study navigates the complex interplay of factors that influence retrofit success. The findings underscore the transformative potential of comprehensive retrofit measures and the paramount importance of resident engagement while offering a potential holistic checklist for future projects. This research paves the way for future studies encompassing contextual diversity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term impact assessment. As it advances, these findings guide the commitment to fostering positive change, enhancing lives, and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable future in social housing retrofit endeavours. Full article

This study aims to determine the influence of the fiscal, monetary, and public policy environment in Sri Lanka and its impact on sustainable development before and after COVID-19. This study used the document analysis qualitative research method to obtain and analyse fiscal, monetary, and public policy data. It assigned and measured the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) values and trends. The goals were clustered into social, environmental, and sustainability-related intellectual capital to measure their dimensional capital status values and trends. Despite the economic crisis, Sri Lanka has moderately progressed in sustainable development, with most improvements in social capital. The environmental and sustainability-related intellectual capital dimensions follow. The 17 SDGs were advancing at various levels. Two were on track (Goal 4: Quality education and Goal 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure). Five moderately improved goals (Goal 2: Zero hunger, Goal 3: Good health and well-being, Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, and Goal 13: Climate action). Seven were stagnant (Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 7: Affordable clean energy, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 14: Life below water, Goal 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, and Goal 17: Partnership for the goals). Two showed a decrease (Goal 1: Poverty and Goal 15: Life on land). No data are reported for Goal 10 (Reduce inequalities). Fiscal and monetary policies were overly focussed on economic repair and reconstruction. Public policy has nevertheless contributed to sustainable development. This is the first study to examine the multidimensional policy environment and its impact on sustainable development in Sri Lanka. Full article

Justice and sustainability are the foundation of fair and equitable biofuel development. Policies and practices are consequently necessary to support a just transition towards a low-carbon economy. Therefore, this study aimed to understand multi-actor perspectives on policies and practices relevant to the just transition in biofuel development. Applying a socio-legal approach based on the JUST framework, this study focused on the Indonesian biofuel industry, which is primarily driven by crude palm oil (CPO) production. This study also added comparative perspectives from Thailand’s biofuel industry. The primary data were gathered from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs), while the secondary data were from research, policy, and other government archives. Based on the results, oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Thailand are crucial for macroeconomic development. However, smallholder farmers in Indonesia, especially independent ones that do not join farmer groups, remain marginalised by the current regulations. In fact, many benefits from biofuel practices and policies accumulate disproportionately towards large corporations, while marginalised groups bear the costs. The Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification that should induce market accessibility and competitiveness has not fully reached most rural farmers. Furthermore, various overlapping regulations and perplexing data differences exist from multiple ministries and administrative levels. Thus, palm oil stakeholders in Indonesia demand a dedicated institution for integrated regulation and monitoring of the industry, similar to the National Palm Oil Policy Committee in Thailand. The myriad of legal, political, socio-economic, and justice issues thus necessitates all hands on deck to ensure a just transition for all stakeholders of the Indonesian biofuel industry. Full article

A comprehensive understanding of public participation is critical for delivering justice in the energy transition. Waste-to-energy (WTE) is a practical approach toward sustainable energy transitions, which may threaten the realization of justice. Previous studies on WTE facilities have mostly discussed the siting stage under the environmental impact assessment (EIA) framework, and few have focused on whether public participation differs when different types of pollution occur. In this paper, we take a WTE project in Kunming, China as an example and, based on semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, explore the influence of differential public participation. The findings indicate that residents were more sensitive when faced with obvious pollution, which became the dominant factor in participation; meanwhile, they were inactively engaged in hidden pollution. Lower levels of health participation partly affect the realization of outcome justice. The shift from procedural justice to outcome justice is not inevitable and is subject to many factors. From an activism perspective, different perceptions of pollution risks and constraints on activities contribute to this state. We call for the government to complete the relevant engagement design in WTE projects and improve citizens’ awareness to achieve better environmental justice. Full article