This article explores how concepts from justice and ethics can inform energy decisionmaking and highlight the moral and equity dimensions of energy production and use. It defines "energy justice" as a global energy system that fairly distributes both the benefits and burdens of energy services, and one that contributes to more representative and inclusive energy decision-making. The primary contribution of the article is its focus on six new frontiers of future energy justice research. First is making the case for the involvement of non-Western justice theorists. Second is expanding beyond humans to look at the Rights of Nature or non-anthropocentric notions of justice. Third is focusing on cross-scalar issues of justice such as embodied emissions. Fourth is identifying business models and the co-benefits of justice. Fifth is better understanding the tradeoffs within energy justice principles. Sixth is exposing unjust discourses. In doing so, the article presents an agenda constituted by 30 research questions as well as an amended conceptual framework consisting of ten principles. The article argues in favor of "justice-aware" energy planning and policymaking, and it hopes that its (reconsidered) energy justice conceptual framework offers a critical tool to inform decision-making.
Climate change will have a great impact on Southern Africa according to the IPCC. Two closely related topics, food security and health will be affected by the changes in many ways. Difficulties in transporting food through carbon regulations in air-freight, changing conditions for growing food crops and negative impacts on fishery might occur and will very possible lead to an increase in malnutrition in the region. Changes of the climate will also have an effect on the way illnesses are transmitted and cause a number of extreme weather events which can have an extremely damaging consequence on human living. Two main efforts are being work on in terms of dealing with these concerns. At the inter-national, regional and national levels, adaptation and mitigation action is being planned and imple-mented. Activities at each level are discussed and I argue this in this paper that currently the most effi-cient way of dealing with the existing and future burdens of climate change impacts are activities at a national level, and enhanced effort has to be made to improve regional and international collaboration in addressing these issues.
The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in South Africa is intended to support the uptake of renewable energy, help address the current energy supply crisis and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, it also requires project developers to engage with socio-economic development at the local level. The distributed nature of renewable energy generation may induce a more geographically dispersed pattern of development, and renewable energy sites can be highly suited to rural locations with otherwise poor potential to attract local inward investment. Socio-economic development and enterprise development are two of seven economic development elements in the programme.In order to prepare a bid submission, project developers have to assess local socio-economic needs around their project site and develop strategies on how to address these. This paper investigates the challenges for local community development. The research is based on case studies and presents findings from the perspective of a research team working alongside project developers. Early findings indicate that there are potential community benefits from commercial wind projects, providing an appropriate community engagement process that is aligned with the project cycle determined by the tender process and engineering requirements. The Passive Community Needs Assessment approach is introduced as a possible solution.
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