Politicizing energy justice and energy system transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition”

Healy, Noel; Barry, John

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2017.06.014

Cited by 518 publications

(210 citation statements)

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“…Given the major social and geographical differences in the incidence of energy poverty within the European Union (EU), these policies are best delivered at the regional scale. A key challenge, however, lies in exposing and treating energy poverty and energy vulnerability though a political lens (Healy & Barry, 2017): seeing them as injustices that have arisen and are allowed to persist due to the presence of particular power interests and ideologies. As such, they are within the reach of the possible with regard to citizen action and wider institutional structures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Poverty

Bouzarovski

2018

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayCover illustration: Détail de la Tour Eiffel © nemesis2207/Fotolia.co.uk EVALUATE is a multi-sited study, involving extensive research across a variety of cities and countries. Focusing primarily on four Central and Eastern European cities (Budapest, Gdanśk, Prague and Skopje) the project has undertaken a customized survey with 2435 households, supplemented with insights from in-depth household interviews, 'energy diaries' and energy efficiency audits in the homes of approximately 160 households living in the four cities. EVALUATE has entailed 195 expert interviews in a much wider range of sites across the world, as well as an analysis of micro-data from national and European Union surveys of energy poverty. It has led to more than 200 dissemination activities, while laying the basis for the European Energy Poverty Observatory as well as a new European Co-operation for Science and Technology Action on 'European Energy Poverty: Agenda Co-Creation and Knowledge Innovation'.EVALUATE benefited from a range of parallel knowledge exchange and dissemination events, funded with the support of the UK Energy EVALUATE has engaged a team of outstanding individuals whose contribution to the project has been immeasurable: the core group has consisted of Neil Simcock, Sergio Tirado Herrero, H...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Poverty

Bouzarovski

2018

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“…A rich literature is now emerging on the need for a 'just transition' for coal miners whose livelihoods depend on coal production, in order to minimize the impact on those workers (Newell and Mulvaney 2013, Baker et al 2014, Abraham 2017. Just transition plans are also seen as tools to overcome possible political resistance against the policies needed to phase out coal (Thurber 2019, Healy and Barry 2017). Coal miners, who are typically a formidable voting bloc, might support candidates who favor the coal industry in the absence of just transition plans (Healy and Barry 2017, Bennhold 2018, Buncombe 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar has greater techno-economic resource suitability than wind for replacing coal mining jobs

Pai

Zerriffi

Jewell

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Coal mining directly employs over 7 million workers and benefits millions more through indirect jobs. However, to meet the 1.5°C global climate target, coal's share in global energy supply should decline between 73% and 97% by 2050. But what will happen to coal miners as coal jobs disappear ? Answering this question is necessary to ensure a just transition and to ensure that politically powerful coal mining interests do not impede energy transitions. Some suggest that coal miners can transition to renewable jobs. However, prior research has not investigated the potential for renewable jobs to replace 'local' coal mining jobs. Historic analyses of coal industry declines show that coal miners do not migrate when they lose their jobs. By focusing on China, India, the US, and Australia, which represent 70% of global coal production, we investigate: (1) the local solar and wind capacity required in each coal mining area to enable all coal miners to transition to solar/wind jobs; (2) whether there are suitable solar and wind power resources in coal mining areas in order to install solar/wind plants and create those jobs; and (3) the scale of renewables deployment required to transition coal miners in areas suitable for solar/wind power. We find that with the exception of the US, several GWs of solar or wind capacity would be required in each coal mining area to transition all coal miners to solar/wind jobs. Moreover, while solar has more resource suitability than wind in coal mining areas, these resources are not available everywhere. In China, the country with the largest coal mining workforce, only 29% of coal mining areas are suitable for solar power. In all four countries, less than 7% of coal mining areas have suitable wind resources. Further, countries would have to scale-up their current solar capacity significantly to transition coal miners who work in areas suitable for solar development.

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“…In one coal‐focused study, though, Ayling analyzes media releases from the Australian Coal Association, Minerals Council of Australia and http://350.org Australia between 2013 and 2016, arguing that they reveal a contest of legitimacy between the coal lobby and climate movement, in which “each party attempts to represent itself as deserving the grant of cognitive, moral, pragmatic, and legal legitimacy” (Ayling, , p. 362). Indeed, Healy and Barry () argue that divestment is an issue which brings together work from diverse literatures on supply side climate policy, the just transition, and climate and energy justice. As such, it provides a rich basis for further studies which more explicitly frame coal conflicts in terms of climate change, either adopting a social movement focus.…”

Section: Appraising the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This means that shifts in the coal trade or in public opinion over coal have amplified significance, since the future of the global climate is inextricably linked with the future of coal. Remarkably in this context, the Paris Agreement contains no mentions of either coal or "fossil fuels" (Healy & Barry, 2017). This overview is guided by the overarching question "What is the future of coal in the context of climate change?"…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal and climate change

Edwards

2019

WIREs Climate Change

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This overview adopts a critical social science perspective to examine the state of play and potential futures for coal in the context of climate change. It introduces key trends in coal consumption, production and trade, before reviewing the relevant literature. Finding surprisingly little literature directly focused on coal and climate change, it appraises existing work and highlights key areas for future research. In addition to established literatures on the situated politics of coal and the political economy of coal, new work calling for demand side policies to be supplemented with supply side policies highlights the increasing importance of normative contestations in driving debates over coal. This suggests that scholars must engage much more directly with climate change as an issue, and particularly with the place of coal in a just transition. Because of coal's mammoth contribution to climate change and the complex political economy which drives its production and consumption, it is likely that coal will remain at the center of difficult questions about the relationship between climate action and development for quite some time. This article is categorized under: Climate and Development > Decoupling Emissions from Development

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Politicizing energy justice and energy system transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition”

Cited by 518 publications

References 50 publications

Energy Poverty

Energy Poverty

Solar has greater techno-economic resource suitability than wind for replacing coal mining jobs

Coal and climate change

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