Pub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104552
Ming-sho Ho , Chun-hao Huang
Rapid renewable energy expansion creates unintended opportunities for crime, yet existing empirical analysis of these mechanisms remains fragmented. This study analyzes corruption in Taiwan's energy transition using an original dataset of prosecutorial records from 2016 to 2024. Applying a green criminology framework to 23 cases involving 130 individuals, we identify three distinct patterns: fraud targeting investors, and embezzlement and bribery involving public officials. Contrary to the prevailing views, career civil servants were implicated more often than elected politicians, with illicit activities concentrated at the grassroots township level. Furthermore, energy developers were frequently victims of extortion rather than perpetrators, indicating that pre-existing weak governance, local factionalism, and organized crime drive these offenses. The analysis identifies land allocation processes and the feed-in-tariff system as structural sources of irregularities. These practices have eroded public confidence and fueled partisan conflict. To restore trust and curb systemic corruption, the study recommends sustained legal enforcement, the use of strategic environmental assessments, and a gradual transition toward competitive bidding mechanisms.
{"title":"“Green electricity cockroaches”: An environmental criminology of fraud, embezzlement, and bribery in Taiwan's renewable energy development","authors":"Ming-sho Ho , Chun-hao Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104552","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104552","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid renewable energy expansion creates unintended opportunities for crime, yet existing empirical analysis of these mechanisms remains fragmented. This study analyzes corruption in Taiwan's energy transition using an original dataset of prosecutorial records from 2016 to 2024. Applying a green criminology framework to 23 cases involving 130 individuals, we identify three distinct patterns: fraud targeting investors, and embezzlement and bribery involving public officials. Contrary to the prevailing views, career civil servants were implicated more often than elected politicians, with illicit activities concentrated at the grassroots township level. Furthermore, energy developers were frequently victims of extortion rather than perpetrators, indicating that pre-existing weak governance, local factionalism, and organized crime drive these offenses. The analysis identifies land allocation processes and the feed-in-tariff system as structural sources of irregularities. These practices have eroded public confidence and fueled partisan conflict. To restore trust and curb systemic corruption, the study recommends sustained legal enforcement, the use of strategic environmental assessments, and a gradual transition toward competitive bidding mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104552"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104526
Rabea Scholz , Johan Lilliestam
As the energy transition picks up pace, the side effects of energy policies are gaining political prominence. In recent years, the costs and, especially, the distributive effects of energy policy have climbed the political agenda, with debates increasingly focusing on the justice effects alongside the effectiveness of policy measures. Here, we explore the role of justice arguments in parliamentary energy policy debates and how they have affected legislation even before they affect the population. We do this for two cases of German energy policy by observing how parliamentarians debate the distributive justice effects of energy transition measures and tracing how their arguments affected legislation. We show that parliamentary debates, especially the more intense and controversial ones, featured strong use of justice arguments, and that both laws subsequently changed along the lines of several of those arguments. Simultaneously, we observe that debates were, in part, symbolic, signaling opposition rather than truly seeking to affect the laws. We conclude that justice-based argumentation is common and strong in parliamentary debates on energy policy, and that these arguments do affect legislation.
{"title":"Justice in the spotlight: Do parliamentary debates shape Germany's energy transition?","authors":"Rabea Scholz , Johan Lilliestam","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104526","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104526","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the energy transition picks up pace, the side effects of energy policies are gaining political prominence. In recent years, the costs and, especially, the distributive effects of energy policy have climbed the political agenda, with debates increasingly focusing on the justice effects alongside the effectiveness of policy measures. Here, we explore the role of justice arguments in parliamentary energy policy debates and how they have affected legislation even before they affect the population. We do this for two cases of German energy policy by observing how parliamentarians debate the distributive justice effects of energy transition measures and tracing how their arguments affected legislation. We show that parliamentary debates, especially the more intense and controversial ones, featured strong use of justice arguments, and that both laws subsequently changed along the lines of several of those arguments. Simultaneously, we observe that debates were, in part, symbolic, signaling opposition rather than truly seeking to affect the laws. We conclude that justice-based argumentation is common and strong in parliamentary debates on energy policy, and that these arguments do affect legislation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104526"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104517
Xavier Arnauld de Sartre , Sébastien Chailleux
Many policy-makers and industrialists consider that, over and above technology, social acceptance is the main obstacle to any decarbonised industrial use of the subsurface. Our aim in this paper is to challenge – and criticise – this point of view, by showing that even if a lack of social acceptance can explain the non-deployment of some subsurface technologies, generalising this explanation to every industrial failure hides – sometimes intentionally – the different reasons explaining why various promises from subsurface industries have failed to materialise in France. Through an analysis of three subsurface industries over a period of 15 years (underground carbon storage, shale gas development and mining prospects), this article shows how a coalition of subsurface industries and policymakers have built up a narrative emphasising the lack of social acceptability. We first show why the narratives about the lack of social acceptance fail to describe the various conflicts and project failures, and then categorise three different ways the lack of social acceptance is used to describe opponents, hide other reasons for failure and obtain policy reforms. We discuss the limitations of these frames to promote energy transition projects and the use of the very notion of social acceptance.
{"title":"When a forest is masked by trees: How French subsurface industries involved in decarbonisation and transition policies are instrumentalising poor social acceptance","authors":"Xavier Arnauld de Sartre , Sébastien Chailleux","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104517","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104517","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many policy-makers and industrialists consider that, over and above technology, social acceptance is the main obstacle to any decarbonised industrial use of the subsurface. Our aim in this paper is to challenge – and criticise – this point of view, by showing that even if a lack of social acceptance can explain the non-deployment of some subsurface technologies, generalising this explanation to every industrial failure hides – sometimes intentionally – the different reasons explaining why various promises from subsurface industries have failed to materialise in France. Through an analysis of three subsurface industries over a period of 15 years (underground carbon storage, shale gas development and mining prospects), this article shows how a coalition of subsurface industries and policymakers have built up a narrative emphasising the lack of social acceptability. We first show why the narratives about the lack of social acceptance fail to describe the various conflicts and project failures, and then categorise three different ways the lack of social acceptance is used to describe opponents, hide other reasons for failure and obtain policy reforms. We discuss the limitations of these frames to promote energy transition projects and the use of the very notion of social acceptance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104517"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104546
Eleanor Buckley , R.M. Colvin
Governments around the world are decarbonising their energy systems, resulting in a rapid and widespread buildout of new renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure. This effort has encountered opposition, including place-based movements in regional areas required to host the infrastructure. Despite growing attention to renewable energy opposition, little is known about the social dynamics within these movements or what participation in them means for those involved. This study provides new and novel insight into the social dynamics and narratives of a regional Australian anti-renewables movement. Drawing on qualitative data from 19 semi-structured interviews with members of the opposition movement in the Wimmera Mallee region of western Victoria, Australia, we find that the social dynamics present in the movement can be understood as an emerging social identity with attendant social norms, shaped by strong links to place. Within this emerging social identity there is vigilant attentiveness to demarcations between ingroups and outgroups, and meaning provided by narratives that frame renewable energy infrastructure as the physical manifestation of deepening distrust of a range of social others including government, renewable energy proponents, and ‘greenie’ actors. For some, opposition to renewables is an extension of resistance to perceived government overreach that began with responses to COVID-19. Our research reveals that navigating this social conflict requires recognising that opposition to infrastructure extends far beyond technical concerns about transmission towers and turbines, instead encompassing a complex web of trust, social identities, place attachments, and intergroup dynamics.
{"title":"Transmission, turbines, and trust: The social dynamics and narratives of opposition to renewable energy infrastructure in regional Australia","authors":"Eleanor Buckley , R.M. Colvin","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104546","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104546","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Governments around the world are decarbonising their energy systems, resulting in a rapid and widespread buildout of new renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure. This effort has encountered opposition, including place-based movements in regional areas required to host the infrastructure. Despite growing attention to renewable energy opposition, little is known about the social dynamics within these movements or what participation in them means for those involved. This study provides new and novel insight into the social dynamics and narratives of a regional Australian anti-renewables movement. Drawing on qualitative data from 19 semi-structured interviews with members of the opposition movement in the Wimmera Mallee region of western Victoria, Australia, we find that the social dynamics present in the movement can be understood as an emerging social identity with attendant social norms, shaped by strong links to place. Within this emerging social identity there is vigilant attentiveness to demarcations between ingroups and outgroups, and meaning provided by narratives that frame renewable energy infrastructure as the physical manifestation of deepening distrust of a range of social others including government, renewable energy proponents, and ‘greenie’ actors. For some, opposition to renewables is an extension of resistance to perceived government overreach that began with responses to COVID-19. Our research reveals that navigating this social conflict requires recognising that opposition to infrastructure extends far beyond technical concerns about transmission towers and turbines, instead encompassing a complex web of trust, social identities, place attachments, and intergroup dynamics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104546"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104542
Mauricio Böhl Gutierrez
The phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies is politically sensitive and often contested, particularly in countries where fuel subsidies form an integral part of the social contract between the state and society. This paper analyses Colombia's phase-out of diesel subsidies through a qualitative case study, drawing on 32 interviews with stakeholders from government, transport, business, academia, and civil society.
Using the social contract as an analytical framework, the study examines actors' perceptions of the phase-out process, with a specific focus on the government's responsibilities under the 3Ps of the social contract (Provision, Participation and Protection) in replacing diesel subsidies. Stakeholders from the passenger and freight transport subsectors view subsidies as an essential Provision within the social contract, particularly in a context of perceived institutional inefficiency and low trust in the government capacity. The government's offer to substitute diesel subsidies with alternative Provisions, such as new technologies in the long term, conflicts with the immediate Protection challenges faced by the sector. To phase out subsidies, the government would need to address the sector's priorities to build trust in its vision for a structural reform and to tackle deep-rooted, structural vulnerabilities in the subsectors that exacerbate dependence on fossil fuels. The study also reveals clientelist structures in Colombia, raising questions about the extent to which other societal groups are involved in the process (Participation) and would require support through mitigation policies (Provision). The study highlights trust-building, inclusive consultation, and structural sector reforms as critical factors in securing public support for subsidy phase-outs.
{"title":"Phasing out diesel subsidies in Colombia: A social contract perspective on stakeholder consultations","authors":"Mauricio Böhl Gutierrez","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104542","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104542","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies is politically sensitive and often contested, particularly in countries where fuel subsidies form an integral part of the social contract between the state and society. This paper analyses Colombia's phase-out of diesel subsidies through a qualitative case study, drawing on 32 interviews with stakeholders from government, transport, business, academia, and civil society.</div><div>Using the social contract as an analytical framework, the study examines actors' perceptions of the phase-out process, with a specific focus on the government's responsibilities under the 3Ps of the social contract (Provision, Participation and Protection) in replacing diesel subsidies. Stakeholders from the passenger and freight transport subsectors view subsidies as an essential Provision within the social contract, particularly in a context of perceived institutional inefficiency and low trust in the government capacity. The government's offer to substitute diesel subsidies with alternative Provisions, such as new technologies in the long term, conflicts with the immediate Protection challenges faced by the sector. To phase out subsidies, the government would need to address the sector's priorities to build trust in its vision for a structural reform and to tackle deep-rooted, structural vulnerabilities in the subsectors that exacerbate dependence on fossil fuels. The study also reveals clientelist structures in Colombia, raising questions about the extent to which other societal groups are involved in the process (Participation) and would require support through mitigation policies (Provision). The study highlights trust-building, inclusive consultation, and structural sector reforms as critical factors in securing public support for subsidy phase-outs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104542"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104543
Fernando Moreno-Brieva , José David Romero-Puente
The global transition toward cleaner energy systems has positioned hydrogen- and lithium battery–based technologies as key enablers of sustainable transport. However, their comparative innovation dynamics remain poorly understood, as studies of this kind have been scarce, despite the strategic importance of both energy carriers for the decarbonization of mobility, industrial competitiveness, and long-term energy security. By examining both technologies within a unified analytical framework, this study offers novel comparative evidence on how organizational leadership and inventor mobility jointly shape their technological trajectories. To address this gap, the study conducts a quantitative patent-based analysis of innovation outcomes in hydrogen- and lithium–battery–powered transport, emphasizing the role of leading organizations in shaping these trajectories. Using data from the European Patent Office for 2010–2022, the study applies two complementary indicators to assess technological leadership, specialization, and inventor mobility as mechanisms of knowledge diffusion. The results show that leadership in both technologies is concentrated among firms headquartered in Germany, China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, with marked differences across technological classes and subclasses. Moreover, the study shows that knowledge diffusion occurs primarily through the mobility of inventors across organizations, suggesting that human capital flows are a key driver of clean-technology transfer. The study concludes by outlining three plausible future scenarios—dominated respectively by lithium batteries, by hydrogen, or by their coexistence—and discusses their implications for sustainable innovation and for the long-term evolution of clean transport systems.
{"title":"From invention to mobility and from niches to global races: Organizational leadership in hydrogen- and lithium-powered transport","authors":"Fernando Moreno-Brieva , José David Romero-Puente","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104543","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104543","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global transition toward cleaner energy systems has positioned hydrogen- and lithium battery–based technologies as key enablers of sustainable transport. However, their comparative innovation dynamics remain poorly understood, as studies of this kind have been scarce, despite the strategic importance of both energy carriers for the decarbonization of mobility, industrial competitiveness, and long-term energy security. By examining both technologies within a unified analytical framework, this study offers novel comparative evidence on how organizational leadership and inventor mobility jointly shape their technological trajectories. To address this gap, the study conducts a quantitative patent-based analysis of innovation outcomes in hydrogen- and lithium–battery–powered transport, emphasizing the role of leading organizations in shaping these trajectories. Using data from the European Patent Office for 2010–2022, the study applies two complementary indicators to assess technological leadership, specialization, and inventor mobility as mechanisms of knowledge diffusion. The results show that leadership in both technologies is concentrated among firms headquartered in Germany, China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, with marked differences across technological classes and subclasses. Moreover, the study shows that knowledge diffusion occurs primarily through the mobility of inventors across organizations, suggesting that human capital flows are a key driver of clean-technology transfer. The study concludes by outlining three plausible future scenarios—dominated respectively by lithium batteries, by hydrogen, or by their coexistence—and discusses their implications for sustainable innovation and for the long-term evolution of clean transport systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104543"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104538
Olivia Coldrey , Philip LaRocco , Paul Lant , David Allan
Despite the clear health, socioeconomic and climate benefits of cooking with clean fuels, many people in low- and middle-income countries are unable to do so. Women and girls experience the effects of cooking poverty most acutely. This paper explores the nexus of clean cooking, gender and finance by investigating how the financial sector can be used as a lever of change to support a gender-responsive clean cooking transition. Expert interviews with funders, gender advisors, entrepreneurs and multilateral organisations reveal a system in which institutions do not treat women as socially, culturally or financially equal to men when it comes to eradicating cooking poverty. Nor do they recognise inherent differences in outlook and risk appetite between genders, or that credit assessments often rely on rigid criteria that can disproportionately exclude women. This results in a lack of visibility, agency and influence for women in policy and funding processes that affect them, and limited access to financial resources. Our research findings suggest a roster of institutional and societal reforms that, if enacted, could lead to substantial progress in advancing a gender-just clean cooking transition. We call attention to public banks as influential institutions with mandates to address structural barriers to socioeconomic development. By mainstreaming gender in their funding operations, taking a proactive approach to women's financial inclusion, and nurturing a more gender-responsive financing ecosystem, public banks can contribute significantly to eradicating cooking poverty, reducing gender-based discrimination and improving women's livelihoods.
{"title":"What women want: Financing a gender-responsive clean cooking transition","authors":"Olivia Coldrey , Philip LaRocco , Paul Lant , David Allan","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104538","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104538","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the clear health, socioeconomic and climate benefits of cooking with clean fuels, many people in low- and middle-income countries are unable to do so. Women and girls experience the effects of cooking poverty most acutely. This paper explores the nexus of clean cooking, gender and finance by investigating how the financial sector can be used as a lever of change to support a gender-responsive clean cooking transition. Expert interviews with funders, gender advisors, entrepreneurs and multilateral organisations reveal a system in which institutions do not treat women as socially, culturally or financially equal to men when it comes to eradicating cooking poverty. Nor do they recognise inherent differences in outlook and risk appetite between genders, or that credit assessments often rely on rigid criteria that can disproportionately exclude women. This results in a lack of visibility, agency and influence for women in policy and funding processes that affect them, and limited access to financial resources. Our research findings suggest a roster of institutional and societal reforms that, if enacted, could lead to substantial progress in advancing a gender-just clean cooking transition. We call attention to public banks as influential institutions with mandates to address structural barriers to socioeconomic development. By mainstreaming gender in their funding operations, taking a proactive approach to women's financial inclusion, and nurturing a more gender-responsive financing ecosystem, public banks can contribute significantly to eradicating cooking poverty, reducing gender-based discrimination and improving women's livelihoods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104538"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104536
Reid Dorsey-Palmateer , Imran Sheikh , Sharon Shewmake , Philip Thompson , Xi Wang
Residential and commercial buildings represent about 40% of energy use and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We survey U.S. state legislators and city council members to understand the levels and drivers of support for various public policy instruments aimed at reducing these carbon emissions from building energy use, finding a wide range of instrument support among our respondents. Policymakers self-reported priorities as well as their jurisdictional financial characteristics impact their likelihood of support of the policy instruments. We find that the priorities of “freedom of choice” and “environmental group support” have the most consistent impacts on the likelihood of supporting each of the policy instruments, while placing a higher value on “local and indoor air quality” uniquely drives support for command-and-control style policy instruments for building decarbonization. We also do not find substantial differences in the likelihood of support for the various building decarbonization policy instruments between state and municipal policymakers after controlling for the policymakers' varying priorities and jurisdictional attributes.
{"title":"Understanding policymaker support of energy decarbonization policies for buildings","authors":"Reid Dorsey-Palmateer , Imran Sheikh , Sharon Shewmake , Philip Thompson , Xi Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104536","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104536","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Residential and commercial buildings represent about 40% of energy use and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We survey U.S. state legislators and city council members to understand the levels and drivers of support for various public policy instruments aimed at reducing these carbon emissions from building energy use, finding a wide range of instrument support among our respondents. Policymakers self-reported priorities as well as their jurisdictional financial characteristics impact their likelihood of support of the policy instruments. We find that the priorities of “freedom of choice” and “environmental group support” have the most consistent impacts on the likelihood of supporting each of the policy instruments, while placing a higher value on “local and indoor air quality” uniquely drives support for command-and-control style policy instruments for building decarbonization. We also do not find substantial differences in the likelihood of support for the various building decarbonization policy instruments between state and municipal policymakers after controlling for the policymakers' varying priorities and jurisdictional attributes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104536"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104530
Anna Thew , Graham Stark , Howard Reed , Matthew Johnson , Elliott Johnson
The United Kingdom Government has highlighted the importance of energy security, energy affordability and a transition to net zero as policy priorities. However, there is concern that the most efficient means of achieving this – nationalisation of the grid and parts of generation and supply – require taxation that is not electorally feasible. It is often asserted that there is an apparent paradox in this regard, such that those who have most to gain from reform are also those most likely to object to those policies. This is most regularly invoked in the case of Red Wall electoral constituencies in Wales and the North and Midlands of England that were won from Labour by the Conservatives in 2019 and which have been described as politically and economically conservative. This article presents findings from conjoint and narrative survey data on energy policy preferences from 595 adults in 2024 with postcodes within Red Wall constituencies – the first such examination of the topic in these electorally critical areas. We find little evidence to suggest widespread opposition to progressive reform, though Conservative voters are more likely to oppose tax rises, even at the cost of reducing avoidable deaths. Overall, voters prioritise reduction of avoidable deaths and energy poverty, as well as transition to public ownership of North Sea oil and gas. Respondents preferred nationalisation over private company ownership of the energy system, and favoured funding through corporate taxation over increases to income tax. This suggests that substantive reform is preferred to the status quo.
{"title":"Reducing avoidable deaths and energy poverty: Conjoint experimental survey evidence on United Kingdom voters' priorities for energy policy","authors":"Anna Thew , Graham Stark , Howard Reed , Matthew Johnson , Elliott Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The United Kingdom Government has highlighted the importance of energy security, energy affordability and a transition to net zero as policy priorities. However, there is concern that the most efficient means of achieving this – nationalisation of the grid and parts of generation and supply – require taxation that is not electorally feasible. It is often asserted that there is an apparent paradox in this regard, such that those who have most to gain from reform are also those most likely to object to those policies. This is most regularly invoked in the case of Red Wall electoral constituencies in Wales and the North and Midlands of England that were won from Labour by the Conservatives in 2019 and which have been described as politically and economically conservative. This article presents findings from conjoint and narrative survey data on energy policy preferences from 595 adults in 2024 with postcodes within Red Wall constituencies – the first such examination of the topic in these electorally critical areas. We find little evidence to suggest widespread opposition to progressive reform, though Conservative voters are more likely to oppose tax rises, even at the cost of reducing avoidable deaths. Overall, voters prioritise reduction of avoidable deaths and energy poverty, as well as transition to public ownership of North Sea oil and gas. Respondents preferred nationalisation over private company ownership of the energy system, and favoured funding through corporate taxation over increases to income tax. This suggests that substantive reform is preferred to the <em>status quo</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"132 ","pages":"Article 104530"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104545
Max-Régis Ogounchi
Energy poverty, acknowledged for its significant impact on health, has become a policy priority in most European countries. Despite increasing attention, the social and health mechanisms through which energy poverty affects well-being remain insufficiently explored. This study uses data from a national survey conducted in mainland France in 2019 (N = 1000 households), to explore the effects of energy poverty on mental and physical health. We construct a multidimensional energy poverty index based on housing satisfaction, mildew/dampness, heating deprivation, and thermal discomfort, and adapt the Short Form health scale. Using structural equation modelling, we show that energy poverty is associated with poorer physical and mental health with physical health partially mediating its effect. Socio-demographic factors including age, gender, housing status, tobacco use, and energy expenditures further amplify these associations. Policy recommendations address the multidimensional nature of energy poverty and its health impacts, providing insights relevant to other countries facing similar challenges.
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