Technology cooperation for sustainable energy: a review of pathways

Abstract

Policy makers, practitioners and academics agree that addressing climate change requires global efforts and that one pillar of any effective approach must include actions undertaken by developing countries. A key mechanism in which developing countries can be engaged is through collaboration to elicit more use of sustainable energy technologies in a region, organization, or community's energy portfolio. Approaches have tended to emphasize the role of the public and / or private sector. An alternative view has also emerged, termed as community approach, noting the absence of civil society actors in the predominant pathways that often characterize technology cooperation in developing countries. Local engagement is important, as it is often these players [whether local governments, community groups, and/or organizations (e.g. hospitals, schools)] who ultimately reap the benefits and/or bear the costs of these technologies. Recent emphasis centres on an enabling environment, recognizing the importance of creating markets for technology diffusion. Tackling the uptake of sustainable energy in a systematic way, emphasis is placed on policies, actors, and institutions. Building on these foundational frameworks, this paper scrutinizes actors and their relationships with a finer grain to better understand sustainable energy technology uptake. The notion is that sustainable energy technology use will increase with the active engagement of local players (earlier on, in a more meaningful way) in the technology cooperation process. C 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Who Drives the Transition to a Renewable-Energy Economy? Multi-Actor Perspective on Social Innovation

“…Discourse, meaning written and spoken communications by actors, can promote actors' efforts to tackle societal issues that need to be resolved in order to achieve a better society [23][24][25][26]30]. The discovery of actors in the texts is becoming increasingly important to research on social innovation.…”

“…Socio-technical transition focused on energy involves interaction and interplay between actors [2][3][4], which produces discourse [7,8]-a variety of written and spoken communication. Such discourse reaches a social consensus about proactively coping with societal issues and challenges [23][24][25][26]30] by gaining more prominent status in the national energy and industrial system and consistently expands the discourse related to renewable energy [93]. In the context of a discourse on the transition to a renewable-energy-based economy, we explore and interpret the structural features of the contexts, in which the keyword is discussed and understood in discourses [111].…”

“…There are differences between the literature on social change (e.g., [17,22,[27][28][29]), energy transition (e.g., [25,30,31]) and renewable energy (e.g., [24,[32][33][34]) in terms of their study settings, scope, themes and interests. Nonetheless, they commonly focus on the transition towards a better society: discussing the requirements of a constantly evolving and collective process involving multiple actors in society and utilizing social learning to address societal challenges and/or needs.…”

North–South partnerships for sustainable energy: Knowledge–power relations in development assistance for renewable energy

“…Governments, development banks, bilateral and multilateral agencies, private enterprises and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) all engage in international development assistance for renewable energy, often with a special emphasis on off-grid rural electrification and small-scale applications for populations lacking access to modern energy services (Chaurey et al, 2012;Sovacool and Drupady, 2012). However, as many RET initiatives fail to achieve sustainable outcomes, a growing body of literature has identified barriers and drivers to the adoption of RETs (Bhattacharyya, 2012;El Fadel et al, 2013;Mallett, 2013;Palit and Chaurey, 2011;Sovacool and Drupady, 2012). Academic reviews and practitioner evaluations suggest that the sustainability and impact of RET interventions to a large extent depend on:…”

“…3 Case studies of development interventions aiming at the adoption of off-grid RETs reported mixed outcomes, with the impact and sustainability of international programmes being inhibited by persistent resource, capacity and participation gaps (Bhattacharyya, 2012;Kruckenberg, 2015;Kumar et al, 2009;Sovacool and Drupady, 2012). North-South partnerships between organisations with complementary resources and expertise are seen as having the potential to bridge some of these gaps, and they are thought to play an important role in the creation of alternative low-carbon development pathways (Chaurey et al, 2012;Fernández-Baldor et al, 2012;Forsyth, 2012;Kruckenberg, 2015;Mallett, 2013;Morsink et al, 2011). However, it has been shown that the performance 1 The terms 'Global South'/'Southern' and 'Global North'/'Northern' refer to the inequalities existing between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.…”