Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

Petrochemical production is tightly entangled with fossil fuel extraction and constitutes the primary driver of oil demand growth. Therefore, scholars have increasingly started exploring the linkages between fossil fuels and chemicals, tracing their importance for the political economy of energy transitions. A defining feature in the global petrochemical industry is that the majority of the recent and ongoing build-out of production capacity is located in China. Therefore, the outlook of the Chinese petrochemical industry is critical to the prospects of national as well as global energy transitions. In this paper, we review and contextualize the Chinese expansion, distilling key dimensions that shape the prospects of petrochemical transitions: i) Chinese political economy dynamics and the role of industrial policy; ii) the tensions between petrochemical expansion, decarbonization, and pollution; and iii) ramifications for the international political economy of petrochemicals. On this basis, we propose a research agenda that explores these three areas in more depth, outlining key issues for an increasingly important trend that shapes reconfigurations in the global energy order.

We carry out a comparative institutional analysis of lithium development in neighboring Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, which together hold over 50 % of world lithium reserves. The comparison reveals that lithium institutional development is subject to long-term processes and contingent junctures within domestic political economies. The potential pivotal role of Chile's national development corporation, CORFO, illustrates the transformative significance of the slogan “institutions matter”: though rules and their enforcement are crucial, effective governance hinges primarily on fostering an institutional ecosystem conducive to mission agreement and translation. Engaging with the mission economy perspective, we argue that “good institutions” entail dynamic policy capacities that regulate and innovate economic development for the public good. Studying how, when and what types of policy capacities develop in the Lithium Triangle countries sheds light on the “institutions matter” inquiry of the political economy of development.

The management of the impacts of climate change on the electricity sector poses a growing challenge, but efforts to model future impacts to plan adaptation have been limited in their delivery of sufficiently usable information. Interviews with stakeholders in the Australian electricity sector about the use of climate science for adaptation reveal that there is recognition of the need for alternatives to the ‘top-down’ application of climate science and conventional modes of risk management in the sector. A more ‘bottom-up’, ‘holistic’ approach that focuses on the resilience of the system is expected to support pragmatic adaptive management of impacts on physical infrastructure and on the communities that depend on power supply. The idea of resilience offers a compelling vision of adaptation for the electricity sector, but our analysis shows that its conceptual baggage and the multiple – and to some extent conflicting – meanings that it connotes may impede the substantive and decisive action that is needed in the face of climate change impacts. We suggest that, if the term continues to be used, stakeholders in the electricity sector in Australia and elsewhere must work to achieve greater clarity about what resilience means in this context, including more specificity about what must be done, and by whom, to manage climate change impacts and enhance resilience.

As states like California move to decarbonize and invest in clean mobility, understanding how the evolving transportation landscape affects travel behavior becomes crucial. This transition to decarbonization presents an opportunity to create a more just energy system, benefiting underserved and historically marginalized communities. This study explored how a limited-income community in Sonoma County, California uses personal transportation to address their travel needs. Through qualitative interviews at two affordable housing complexes, we uncovered residents' experiences with transportation and factors influencing their travel choices. Our findings showed that participants navigated a complex, interconnected transportation system, comprising five critical subsystems: transportation options, infrastructure, availability, financing, and rules and norms. Each subsystem was characterized by distinct points of interaction, reflecting the multifaceted experiences of users. Individual circumstances, such as interactions with the criminal justice system and familial responsibilities, profoundly shaped participants' transportation choices. Participants prioritized factors such as cost-effectiveness, safety, convenience, and reliability, but their decisions were also influenced by their specific needs and contexts, including the need for point-to-point travel, family alignment, and familiarity considerations. In this work, we uncovered the social dimensions of personal transportation choices, which can help transportation planners and engineers better integrate a sociotechnical perspective when designing future transportation systems. By understanding the diverse needs of communities and applying a sociotechnical systems perspective, policymakers can work toward a more equitable and decarbonized transportation future, ensuring access regardless of personal circumstances and individual travel needs.

Health concerns regarding indoor air quality are leading to greater uptake of air purification technologies internationally, alongside the continuing normalisation of air conditioning. With thermal comfort largely considered separately from air quality, the energy sector risks inadequately preparing for the emergence of new indoor air practices and associated ‘needs’. Conceptually grounded in theories of social practice and design anthropological foresighting, this article explores how people's household air practices are changing, what kinds of air technologies they expect to be using in the near future (2025–2030), and how this might impact energy sector ambitions. The article draws on research from a four-year project with Australian households involving in-home virtual ethnography, and a design ethnography futures activity involving a ‘thing interview’ where participants designed and roleplayed their ideal future air technology and were interviewed by a researcher roleplaying the electricity grid. The analysis reveals that households increasingly expect healthy, safe and comfortable indoor environments, in which people seek to manage air flows through the home with air technologies. The futures analysis identifies the anticipated desire for air quality embedded within heating and cooling systems, an expectation for smart control, and some interest in incentives to modify air practices in order to optimise electricity system outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for energy demand, call for an expanded definition of thermal comfort that accounts for emerging air practices, and recommend further research on healthy, safe and comfortable air in indoor environments, pointing towards sites for intervention and innovation.

The global plastics industry is undergoing significant expansion, driven by record-scale infrastructure investments that are increasing fossil fuel demand. However, this growth has largely bypassed Europe, where mature markets, limited feedstock availability, and stringent environmental regulations prevail. Despite these constraints, in 2019 the petrochemical conglomerate INEOS announced plans for a new ethane cracker in Antwerp, the single largest project in the European chemical industry for decades. This unexpected development raises questions about how fossil-based plastic production can expand in a region purportedly transitioning away from fossil fuels. Here, we employ a neo-Gramscian perspective on transitions to analyse the INEOS investment as a case study using both documents and interview data. We trace the processes that facilitated this project, examining developments in the broader fossil fuel economy and INEOS's strategies for accommodating local and global transition pressures. Our analysis demonstrates that the investment represents a case of trasformismo, where limited socio-technical reconfiguration enables the expansion of fossil-based plastic production despite ongoing socio-ecological crises linked to plastics. We conclude that the expansion of plastics production in Europe exemplifies broader efforts to maintain fossil fuel hegemony beyond energy production. This finding highlights the need for strategic approaches that address fossil fuels as feedstock to effectively transition towards post-fossil forms of production.

Climate change commitments and the current global energy and living cost crises require investment into energy efficiency in buildings. With one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe, the energy intensity of buildings in the United Kingdom remains high compared to other countries. The adoption of energy retrofit measures can support tackling several social, economic, and environmental objectives. Scarce uptake of these is particularly evident within the private rented sector, which presents additional hurdles compared to social and owner-occupied housing. We adopt an innovative theoretical and methodology approach at the intersection of new economic sociology and energy demand reduction literature to analyse the social relations of energy retrofitting in Brighton and Hove through interviews with landlords and experts in the field. A high percentage of private rented sector housing in poorly insulated and historical buildings, makes retrofitting in this area particularly challenging. Several strategies and policies have been implemented to decarbonise homes; yet have failed in framing the problem surrounding the adoption of retrofitting measures largely in economic terms. By contrast, our case study shows evidence of the ‘relational’ nature of a retrofitting decision-making process shaped by landlords' identities and networks of relations among and within retrofit actors; this could support tailoring more efficient policies. Place-related assets, institutional landscape, climate and built environment specificities are also critical. We are recommending more efficient strategies at the central level that allow for place specific policies; these should account for local features and relational approaches to overcome challenges to retrofit within the sector.

This paper draws attention to Indigenous communities who have been understudied in the social acceptance and renewable energy transition literatures. As Canada's federal government endeavors to act towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens, Indigenous communities are taking pioneering roles as owners in the renewable energy sector. In the province of Ontario, M'Chigeeng First Nation is one such pioneer in Ontario's wind energy space, operating as sole owner of two wind turbines since 2012. Our survey of 161 M'Chigeeng members, requested by the community, tests a range of hypotheses that emerged from earlier face-to-face interviews and dovetail with the social acceptance literature. A majority (60 %) of respondents have a positive attitude towards their turbines and while positivity is significantly correlated with most of the hypothesized predictors (e.g., community affinity, fair process, fair benefits, information sharing, pride, relationships (conflict), and reconciliation), the regressions show that positivity towards the turbines is most consistently predicted by positive emotions, pride, and the project representing a form of Indigenous-Settler reconciliation. That said, only 37 % of the sample agree that the project represents reconciliation. The implications of this exploratory case study are discussed in relation to community goals and the wider renewable energy transition.

The Kashagan oil field in the Kazakhstani section of the Caspian Sea is among the largest hydrocarbon development projects in the world and of immense importance for the Kazakhstani economy. It is however infamous for its decade-long delays and massive cost overruns, putting into question the legitimacy of the Kazakhstani leadership's economic development model which is based on the exploitation of the country's hydrocarbon wealth.

Recognising the importance of political media framing strategies in authoritarian contexts, this article applies topic modelling and traditional qualitative framing analysis to understand Kazakhstani media narratives around the 2013 pipeline leak at the Kashagan which ultimately delayed commercial production until 2016. Drawing on the analysis of 13,335 Russian-language Kazakhstani media and political texts, I identify two distinct framing strategies: Firstly, the official media used three consecutive framings – (1) silence, (2) blaming the Kashagan oil, and (3) emphasising the positive impact of the regime's extractivist development model in partnership with International Oil Companies (IOCs). Secondly, independent media outlets pointed towards the political-economic entanglement of members of the domestic elite and IOCs in the pipeline leak.

Despite its immense scale, the Kashagan oil field has been overlooked in the social science energy literature. By tracing how specific material qualities of the Kashagan oil have been exploited as a tool in the political leadership's discourse, this study adds to scholarship on the political relevance of energy materiality, ultimately stating that while oil has inherent characteristics that influence discursive political strategies, these qualities do not determine political outcomes.

Recent scholarly developments emphasise integrating insights from public policy discipline within the multilevel perspective (MLP) to understand sustainability transitions better. In this context, this article incorporates the concept of street-level policy entrepreneurs, specifically government-affiliated implementation agencies, within MLP to explain technology adoption and market creation when the technology is not cost-competent. The MLP framework is applied to analyse the case of the LED transition in India and highlight how a window of opportunity emerged in India, driven by global niche developments, favourable regime conditions and relevant institutional mechanisms. However, the high upfront cost of LEDs posed a significant challenge in utilising this window for niche-regime linking. This study demonstrates the critical role and activities of a state-affiliated implementation agency—Energy Efficiency Services Limited—in utilising this window of opportunity to accelerate the transition. It examines Energy Efficiency Services Limited's innovative implementation model that helped overcome the high upfront cost of LEDs, resulting in widespread technology adoption and reorientation of firm activities towards domestic manufacturing of LEDs in India. This study contributes to MLP scholarship by exploring the role of government in the later phases of the policy process and transition.