Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

Energy poverty, understood as the lack of access to adequate and sufficient energy services, constitutes a severe development problem for the African continent. Even though several policies and alleviation measures have been implemented in the last few decades, African countries still face multiple challenges. Therefore, this paper aims to identify these challenges related to energy poverty alleviation in Africa and the suitable solutions to address them. Using a mixed methods approach, involving a bibliometric analysis and a survey of involved actors, the study identifies the current constraints, obstacles and measures to address the problem in African countries. Findings point out to governance-related issues, including corruption and poor policy implementation, as the most indicated reasons for energy poverty in Africa, more than technological, financial, and policy issues. The results also confirm the fact that energy poverty has various roots and addressing it needs to take into account challenges related to outdated infrastructure, limited accessibility, and high prices. Moreover, there is often a lack of awareness about the benefits of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient practices, which suggests research in this field is also needed. The novelty of this study resides in the fact that it reviews the literature on the topic, describes its variables associated with the problem, and presents the views and perspectives from people familiar with the topic. The insights from this research can inform policymakers and infrastructure planners, helping them to prioritise investments and design interventions that address the root causes of energy poverty and its various manifestations.

Nation states globally have signaled a rapid pursuit of net-zero emissions and transition to a low carbon economy. The country Canada is a part of this discourse and already has a largely decarbonized electricity grid, which is expected to grow substantially in the coming decades. Despite these ‘on-grid’ successes, remote, northern, and off-grid communities in Canada, most of which identify as Indigenous, remain almost wholly dependent on diesel fuel for space-heating and power generation. The agenda to transition remote communities off diesel-power is often driven by non-Indigenous outsiders, and seldom centers Indigenous knowledge, rights, or ways of being, potentially resulting in adverse socio-economic and ecological impacts and novel forms of ‘green’ colonialism. The current study is a participatory research partnership, between several university-based researchers, as well as representatives of the NunatuKavut Community Council – the rights-based governing body who represent Inuit across nine diesel-dependent communities in southern Labrador. The case-study research uses key informant interviews (n = 14) and a community member survey (n = 34) to assess how existing clean energy initiatives (policies, plans, programs, projects, etc.) in NunatuKavut have respected principles of energy justice. We discover and build upon several categories of distributional, procedural, and recognition injustice. Recognizing the potential harm of injustice discourses, we call on energy researchers to more meaningfully integrate strength-based approaches which focus on Indigenous resistance and response to energy domination. Finally, based on our results, we develop two novel schematics to help further understand distributive and procedural justice in the context of Indigenous energy governance.

Solar projects can provide economic benefits to landowning farmers and rural communities. But residents' concerns have spurred anti-solar local ordinances in some farming communities, including coal legacy communities. We interviewed 32 farmers and 16 nonfarmers in Appalachian counties in Pennsylvania and Maryland to understand their views on solar projects. The framework of place attachment provides a lens to understand these views. Farmers underscored their farming identity and their ethical obligations to protect farmlands, and rural residents expressed emotional ties to their farming communities and landscape. Generally, we find that supporters see solar leasing as a protector of farmland, by providing the financial means for farmers to continue farming and owning farmland. Conversely, opponents saw solar leasing as a threat to farmlands and rural communities by causing farmland loss, jeopardizing tenant farmers' livelihoods and marring the rural landscape. Farmers supportive of solar leasing explained the types of solar projects that better complement their place attachment, such as smaller-scale projects that fit into the rural landscape and community solar projects that reinforce shared community values. We find that these communities' fossil fuel legacies have varying effects, with some seeing solar projects as an opportunity to revitalize their communities and enabling place continuity, while a few see them as a threat to their coal heritage. Drawing on these findings, we discuss how understanding residents' views on solar projects regarding their place attachment can inform the design of state policies on solar.

In Canada, depending on the indicator, between 6 % and 19 % of households are facing energy poverty, i.e. they are struggling to meet their energy needs. Some peripheral regions, such as the Atlantic Provinces and rural areas of the country, see a larger share of their population facing energy poverty. This study provides an in-depth and multi-faceted understanding of the causes, distribution, and consequences of energy poverty in Bridgewater, a small town in Nova Scotia. Primary data for this study were collected through a community-wide survey answered by 516 adult residents of Bridgewater (12 % response rate). A range of indicators were used to quantify energy poverty. Among respondents, 38 % faced a high energy burden, 21 % reported being unable to keep their dwelling adequately warm, while close to 30 % reported having to juggle bills or cut on food to pay energy bills, and being unable to afford their transportation needs. Women, individuals with lower education, and those living in poorer quality housing and in dwellings heating with oil were significantly more likely to face energy poverty. The likelihood of reporting poorer general and mental health, higher stress in daily life, and lower social support was significantly higher among people facing energy poverty. Local action on energy poverty needs to be prioritized for a just energy transition.

We study the impact of four different information framing methods on household energy consumption among 30,000 households in Romania. In a field experiment, households were randomly allocated to either the control group or one of four experimental groups. The framing of the mail focused on different benefits: i) individual economic benefits, ii) environmental benefits, iii) individual health framing, and iv) community health framing. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we show that tailored information interventions significantly influence household energy consumption behaviours. The results indicate that the overall treatment effect led to a significant 1.5 % reduction in electricity consumption compared to the control group. Treated households reduced their electricity consumption by 48 kWh annually, resulting in total savings in the treatment group of approx. 718 MWh/year. Among the specific treatments, the “Individual Health” and “Collective Health” interventions showed the most substantial impact. The “Individual Health” treatment resulted in a 2.9 % reduction, while the “Collective Health” treatment achieved a 4.3 % reduction in electricity consumption. These results highlight the effectiveness of health-related messaging in promoting energy conservation.

This article introduces a typology of nine communication frames and analyzes how they operate in Bill Gates's How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe (2021) and Greta Thunberg's The Climate Book (2022). The typology draws special attention to how non-fiction books are vehicles that can appeal for timely action (i.e. kairos), establish authorial ethos, disseminate climate science, and advocate for climate activism and energy transitions. The application of the typology highlights the books' narrative arcs: Gates and Thunberg both begin by acknowledging the reality and severity of the climate crisis and the correspondence between social progress and justice. Then, their arguments diverge: Thunberg critiques ineffective policies, cites climate science, and urges immediate social action; Gates provides economic context to support his appeals for innovation spurred by applied science. Towards their conclusions, the two authors' rhetorical appeals converge again as they each advocate for timely action. The results of this thematic analyses reinforce the value of book-length arguments that engage scientific evidence and envisage urgent individual and collective responses to climate crises.

Due to the aviation energy sector's increasing contribution to climate change and the impact of climate change on the aviation sector, determining key energy policy and economic research priorities for enabling an effective and equitable aviation climate action is becoming an increasingly important topic. In this perspective, we address this research need using a four-pronged methodology. It includes (i) identifying topical matters highlighted in the media (news); (ii) formulating novel and feasible policy and economic research challenges that pertain to these contemporary issues; (iii) cross-referencing the proposed research challenges with academic literature to confirm their novelty, and refining them as necessary; and (iv) validating the importance, novelty, and feasibility of these research challenges through consultation with a diverse group of aviation experts in fuel, policy, technology, and infrastructure fields. Our results highlight twelve main themes. Among these, the top emerging policy and economic research challenges, as prioritized by expert input, are – (i) frameworks for equitable responsibility allocation between developed and developing country airlines for future emissions; (ii) cost analysis of airlines' net-zero by 2050 commitments; (iii) effectiveness and opportunity cost of airlines investing in offsetting relative to reduction measures; (iv) EU aviation policies' historical and potential effects on airfares, demand, emissions, EU air carriers' competitiveness, passenger traffic through EU hubs, regional economies, and social climate funds' ability to mitigate distributional effects of EU aviation policies. These identified priorities can steer both industry and academic research toward creating practical recommendations for policymakers and industry participants. When it comes to future research, the ever-changing nature of the challenges in achieving aviation climate action means that our findings might need regular updates.

There is an urgent need to decarbonize mobility. Yet, the necessary policies risk compounding existing vulnerabilities and controversies and creating new ones, potentially leading to political polarization. One affected population consists of people living in rural peripheries. Drawing from a Finnish public consultation survey (n = 18,378), we explore how rural participants (n = 4995) experience policies and proposals to decarbonize mobility: how they perceive the problem and what they propose as solutions. We draw on Noortje Marres' concept of attachments to understand the socio-material, discursive and subjective attachments that coalesce in rural experiences of policies and proposals to decarbonize mobility. We contribute to previous research on spatial inequalities in the mobility transition by showing how electric vehicles might not simply replace internal combustion engines in rural areas. We also show how distributive policies, i.e. subsidies, might not solve the problems, because different dimensions of attachments are intertwined and serve to maintain each other and thus reinforce existing experiences of inaccessibility and injustice. We conclude with suggestions for how to better address just and acceptable mobility transitions for rural dwellers.

The brick manufacturing industry in Bangladesh is characterized by informal inefficient coal-burning kilns that emit substantial greenhouse gases and air pollution. Despite decades of regulatory measures and the promotion of advanced kiln technologies, informal kilns persist. We employed a multiphase, interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach to identify solutions. In this paper, we first summarize past approaches and discuss the key barriers we identified to improving the industry, then we present the design, and results of a randomized pilot energy efficiency intervention designed to overcome barriers to improved kiln operation. Our approach emphasized collaborating with informal zigzag kiln owners, who constitute the majority of brick producers, and carefully considering their incentives for changing a profitable business model. The intervention achieved high (60 %), including from non-study kilns, highlighting its appeal. Our findings provide insights into key elements for a successful intervention strategy that can be applied in larger-scale studies, not only for brick manufacturing but also for addressing broader environmental and health challenges.

In this paper, we develop a comprehensive behaviour model for residential buildings that considers the diversity among households. While existing behavioural theories from social and psychological sciences have been used in building research, they often lack technical detail, contextual aspects, and focus primarily on behavioural change. The authors propose an interdisciplinary theoretical model that integrates insights from behavioural science and engineering dimensions. This model aims to link measurable drivers directly to energy outcomes, consider building-related contexts, and reflect the complexity of high-performance buildings.

The research consisted of the quantitative analysis of building monitoring data and the analysis of interviews using thematic analysis. The mix-methods approach allowed to obtain new insights into the relationship between the aspects that affect occupants' behaviour. An interdisciplinary model is developed based on the results from the analysis, existing theoretical models used in building research, and previous studies on occupants' behaviour. The model is intended to support the identification of occupants' behaviour drivers, inform user-centric and energy-efficient building design, enhance decision-making for building monitoring and simulations, and aid in various practical applications such as performance assessment and energy contracting.