Energy justice and policy change: An historical political analysis of the German nuclear phase-out

Abstract

The German government presented the decision to phase out nuclear energy as a nationally accepted rebalancing of inequality in the energy sector. We expose how this radical change was delivered through a myriad of change agents, most notably through the rise of small energy companies. Critical junctures, in this case the Chernobyl disaster rather than Fukushima, offer moments in time when national policy systems are destabilized. They provide opportunities for changing policy in a perceived pro-energy justice direction if a new consensus can be forged. The paper concludes with a discussion on how energy scholars must engage more with policy analysis frameworks if long-term effective solutions are to be found to persistent energy inequalities.

Energy justice in the transition to low carbon energy systems: Exploring key themes in interdisciplinary research

“…Discourses, perceptions, norms and values have also been studied in relation to understanding how people comprehend energy justice using discourse and content analysis [46,66,67]. Additional methods such as process tracing [45], historical political analysis [50], and deliberative dialogue approach [47] highlight how qualitative methods can offer new research approaches to engaging the social, political and economic dimensions of just transitions to a low carbon energy system.…”

“…Lastly, although less prevalent, a critique levied at the above approaches is that they (1) have mostly been derived by Western, or European and American, thinkers, not those from the Global South, and that (2) they focus on protecting humans, but not other forms of life. New theories and concepts have emerged from within the SI such as exnovation [46], energyscapes [49] or historical institutionalism [50].…”

Synthesizing value sensitive design, responsible research and innovation, and energy justice: A conceptual review

“…Other studies have applied Energy Justice to particular contemporary issues, including nuclear energy (e.g. [115]), energy regulation (e.g. [116]) and the spatiality of Energy Justice vulnerabilities (e.g.…”

Energy Justice Across Borders

“…It is also built upon existing research agendas in the form of environmental and climate justice (Bickerstaff and Agyeman 2009;Walker 2009;Walker and Bulkeley 2006;Barrett 2012;Bulkeley et al 2013), as well as more recent innovations in energy poverty (Bouzarovski and Herrero 2016;García Ochoa and Graizbord Ed 2016) and vulnerability (Bouzarovski et al 2017a, b;Middlemiss and Gillard 2015) research. Energy justice is considered outward looking because it engages in testing geographical thought alongside other competing disciplinary traditions such as legal studies (Guruswamy 2015), business (Hiteva and Sovacool 2017), political science McCauley et al 2018) (Heffron and McCauley 2014;McCauley et al 2019). In recognition of its interdisciplinary roots and its initial adoption by legal studies , it is defined as the application of rights across and within the various system components of energy provision and consumption .…”