Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

Energy justice literature provides no clear indications on why energy justice is sometimes not safeguarded in decision-making processes. What is needed is a theoretical understanding of how decision-makers balance different considerations. Drawing on public values theory, we build a theoretical lens for understanding decision-making in the energy transition. Through this lens, we recognize that decision-makers can (i) altogether overlook justice, (ii) misunderstand justice as something other than energy justice, or (iii) sideline energy justice. To analyze decision-making processes through this lens, we introduce a three-step research approach. The first step involves mapping the multitude of public values at stake in energy system change. The second and third steps focus on identifying which public values are pursued and how decision-makers balance these values. In this article, we cover the first step by presenting a public values categorization based on literature review, thereby providing a stepping stone for future research using the public values approach. Ultimately, the public values approach offers essential insights into whether and how decision-makers in the energy transition consider and balance justice concerns. These insights can serve as starting points for more in-depth studies on the factors shaping decision-makers' value orientations and decision-making processes. As such, the theoretical approach presented in this paper provides the basis for developing an understanding of decision-making in the energy transition and its impact on energy justice.

For an equitable transition towards a decentralized and clean energy future, the involvement and active participation of citizens is needed, exemplified by new organizational forms such as Energy Communities (ECs). While determinants of citizen engagement in renewable energy projects have received some attention in the literature, research mostly focuses on continental Europe, with limited understanding of the perceptions and motivations of citizens living in the Global South or in contexts of poverty and marginalization. Using novel survey data (n = 392) and insights from 16 key informant interviews from the French overseas territory Mayotte, we investigate citizens' perception of renewable energies and ECs and their willingness to participate in such initiatives, confirming high support of the local population for a community-based energy transition. Through exploratory factor analysis and subsequent multivariate regressions, we identify the factors Environmental Awareness, Access to Services and Social Inclusion as important determinants of citizen engagement, with Environmental Awareness exhibiting particularly strong and robust effects on both general support and the willingness to actively participate in an EC. Establishing the housing situation of respondents as a proxy for socio-economic status (SES), we find positive effects of SES on EC support, which is mediated by the identified factors and thereby represents a fourth, underlying determinant of support. Our research underscores the vital importance of considering the multifaceted, diverse perceptions and motivations of the local population to achieve the vision of an equitable transition. Inclusion of needs and priorities of various socio-economic groups, particularly the most vulnerable community members, is essential.

Limiting global warming will likely require removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and keeping it out of the atmosphere by sequestering it. Public support is crucial for a rapid upscaling of carbon removal and sequestration. One central concern is that public support for these negative emissions technologies (NETs) could be hampered by a moral hazard: that NETs could undermine mitigation efforts and should thus be avoided. Building on previous research, we investigate four novel ways of framing the use of a form of carbon removal from the atmosphere that is currently of broad interest, direct air capture (DAC). We frame DAC use in terms of either necessity (DAC for limiting climate change being either essential or dependent on future mitigation) or temporality (DAC of either past or future emissions from the atmosphere). In a survey experiment with a nationally representative U.S. sample (N = 2891) we examined how these frames affect public support and risk perceptions in the U.S. for DAC, and the roles of prior awareness of DAC, climate change worry, and their interactions with the different frames. Frames differentially influenced support depending on prior awareness and climate change worry, higher levels of which were associated with more support for DAC (but also greater anticipated moral hazard) independent of the frames. Overall, framing only weakly affected public support, which was on average modest. These insights extend previous findings regarding the limited usefulness of moral hazard frames, but highlight the potential value of tailoring DAC messaging to different target audiences.

This article aims to examine the protection accorded to nuclear power plants in international law, based on the example of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in the context of the current Russian aggression against Ukraine and the ensuing international armed conflict. The authors attempt to answer the question of the legality of the attacks against the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. The research methods used are institutional-legal analysis and, supplementarily, a critical literature analysis. The institutional-legal analysis focuses on the examination of international treaties like Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which constitutes the main legal reference point in this article, as well as on other documents that may not be binding (such as resolutions adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference or the Board of Governors, as well as statements and reports of other International Atomic Energy Agency's and United Nations' bodies). The main conclusion is that Russian attacks against the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant were and continue to be illegal on multiple fronts. While the legal regulations appear adequate and capable of meeting the challenge posed by Russian attacks and occupation of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the problem lies with the political will of Russia to respect these rules.

Since 2017, more than sixty countries have developed national hydrogen strategies aimed at facilitating the establishment of low-carbon hydrogen supply chains to help national and global decarbonisation goals. However, <1 % of global hydrogen production is low-carbon. Moreover, efforts to scale up hydrogen production and use will confront multiple barriers that could delay decarbonisation outcomes. Government proposals to build a vast infrastructure for producing and consuming low-carbon hydrogen thus carry significant risks to decarbonisation. The extant literature has examined financial and physical risks of proposed hydrogen supply chains. But broader interdisciplinary perspectives on the challenges to achieving decarbonisation via hydrogen lack. In this study, we employ an integrative review (considering literature from diverse fields and many methodologies) to comprehensively identify the risks for national decarbonisation goals posed by emerging low-carbon hydrogen supply chains. Following categories proposed by the IPCC, our review reveals thirty-two risks across seven categories (geophysical, environmental-ecological, technological, economic, socio-cultural, institutional, geopolitical). To increase the framework's value as a decision-making tool, we also suggest illustrative indicators and potential data sources for them, to evaluate the severity of these risks. The framework prompts a shift for hydrogen development discussions away from asking “how” hydrogen contributes to decarbonisation, instead prompting questions of “where” hydrogen can be used with the least risk to reducing emissions around the world.

In the context of regional energy transitions entrenched positions between involved actors are empirically observable but we lack a regionally specific theoretical foundation to grasp and explain them. The study suggests the concept of ‘Regional Transition Fields’ (RTF) which encompass all actors, activities and organisations in a region that share a concern for the energy transition. This approach allows consideration of both those actors that promote an energy transition towards more sustainable energy sources and those that oppose it as part of the same field. The study argues that, despite the apparent agreement on the issue at stake, conflicts and tensions arise within that field concerning the rules, regulations, and common reference frames against which behaviours are judged. The framework posits that processes of adaptation and delimitation continually re-shape the structure of the field. The framework is applied to a qualitative in-depth case study of Northern Hesse in Germany. Based on a content analysis of semi-structured interviews the study offers evidence of the existence of a regional transition field, briefly introduces the key actors and actor constellations in this field, and illustrates the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive dimensions of both adaptation and delimitation processes in this case. The study thus contributes a conceptual framework on how institutionalisation occurs in fields and thereby a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of entrenched positions in regional transition fields, which may inform future studies of regional energy transitions.

The present study utilizes a value sensitive design (VSD) inspired approach to contribute to the design and implementation of CO₂ electrolysis (CO₂E) within the framework of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies, which convert CO₂ into valuable products. The focus of this study is on a low technology readiness level (TRL) technology, yet likely relevant to reach climate neutrality by 2050. We examine the perspectives of stakeholders along the supply chain and proactively identify relevant sustainability-related values and potential conflicts among them. Thus the current work highlights the importance of considering a broad range of stakeholders and their values in the early stages of technological design. The research approach is consisting of various steps inspired by value sensitive design (VSD): identifying relevant values and norms associated with CO2 electrolysis through literature analysis, conducting qualitative interviews with relevant stakeholders to triangulate the results. Subsequently, a value-based alignment network analysis was employed to examine shared values that are central for the design of the technology. The findings indicate that sustainability-related values such as concern for nature, climate change mitigation, the use of renewable energy, critical raw materials, cost, and return on investment, albeit with potential differences in interpretation, are increasingly becoming central considerations in the decision-making processes of individuals, businesses, and governments alike. Based on these findings, specific aspects of technology design, namely scale, location, integration, and synthesized product, that can impact a wide range of identified values, are discussed.

Income, education, employment, and housing conditions are key determinants of energy poverty. Recent studies have also highlighted the role of ethnicity and race. The current study analyzed data from a survey of 1274 social-aid recipients in Israel, with the objectives of firstly, delineating disparities in personal and household characteristics, along with energy poverty experiences, between the two principal ethnic groups in Israel – Jews and Arab-Muslims; and secondly, investigating the relationship between belonging to an ethnic minority and the relative severity of energy poverty experiences, while accounting for the aforementioned determinants. The findings reveal striking ethnic disparities related to energy poverty, even when controlling for income and education. Compared with Jewish households, Arab-Muslim households were twice as likely to experience severe energy poverty, which manifested in higher rates of self-reported electricity disconnections and the need to forgo cooling, heating, and other essentials due to the inability to pay electricity bills. In addition to ethnicity, poor housing conditions, unpaid financial commitments, and aid dependency were significantly associated with energy poverty. The discussion highlights the historical, social and structural contexts, which may account for such disparities. Within Israeli society, Arab-Muslim households confront multifaceted challenges stemming from enduring discrimination as well as cultural barriers. Persistent inequalities in planning and housing leads to unsafe electricity connections and distrust in the state's institutions; ill-adapted banking and finance systems hinder payment flexibility and debt resolution; and language and cultural obstacles limit access to social rights and increase aid dependency. We conclude that tackling energy poverty demands an integrated understanding of these issues and the design of policies that bridge the gap between energy and welfare services.

The adoption of battery-electric, plug-in vehicles (EVs) requires drivers to make changes to their daily routines, not least to accommodate charging instead of refuelling. Studies show that most early adopters charge their vehicles when they are parked at or near home or the workplace, but there is little consideration of how these parking and charging practices might differ from parking without charging. The social context of parking and charging and its relevance to EV adoption has also been widely overlooked in the literature. This study uses concepts from theories of social practice and semi-structured interview techniques to analyse the routine actions of parking and charging, how these practices emerge and evolve as distinct from previous parking practices, and their implications for EV adoption. Findings highlight how the more distinct the materials, skills, meanings, and configuration of parking and charging practices are from previous parking practices, the more likely that EV owners show evangelist tendencies to recruit others to EV adoption. Such positive social interactions help overcome concerns about public charging and the skills needed to adopt an EV. The study also found that EV owners with private driveways take longer to develop distinct practices than those who park and charge in public, suggesting the importance of spatial and social context to the development of EV evangelism. The implications are that local policies should support social interaction and the development of new skills and meanings, as well as infrastructure, to accelerate EV adoption.

India has positioned itself as a leader in transitioning its energy sector to renewable sources, with ambitious targets and policies in place. Large-scale grid-integrated renewable energy plants have been identified as the most efficient option. Scholarly arguments differ regarding the impacts of renewables-led transitions, with some emphasizing positive environmental, economic, and social outcomes, while others highlight the potential for reinforcing asymmetrical power relations and unjust outcomes. Viewing the energy transition as a socio-technical process, we utilize a recent conceptualisation of the relationship between institutional work and infrastructures to analyze the unfolding power dynamics and its influence on socially just outcomes. Theoretically, we draw on the ‘Triple-Re’ framework, which distinguishes three interrelated domains of institutional work in socio-technical transitions: reimagining, recoding, and reconfiguring of infrastructures. Through a process tracing approach, we study the planning and realization of India's Pavagada Solar Park to understand the interactions among actors, institutions, policies, and material contexts at various spatial and temporal scales. Field observations, interviews, and archival research reveal how discursive dynamics and the recoding of rules and policies have facilitated land and resource mobilization, resulting in changes to ownership models, local infrastructure, land use, ecosystems, and occupational structures. We argue that recognizing and understanding these outcomes are crucial for achieving socially just outcomes in the context of renewable energy infrastructure.