The governance of urban energy transitions: A comparative study of solar water heating systems in two Chinese cities

Huang, Ping; Broto, Vanesa Castán; Liu, Ying; Ma, Huizi

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.053

Cited by 54 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The case of Rizhao, shows how the co-evolution of everyday practices and large-scale industrial developments supported the expansion of low-cost water heating systems in all types of buildings. In this case, we took advantage of the previous application of the DUET framework to the case of Rizhao (see for instance, Huang et al 2018aHuang et al , 2018b, deepening the analysis with the use of new empirical materials to analyze the transition using a spatiotemporal perspective. Figure 2 shows the location of the three cities.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The DUET framework seeks to systematically analyze the socio-spatial and political interactions that shape urban energy transitions (Huang and Castán Broto 2018;Huang et al 2018b). The focus is on delivering a context-sensitive analysis of energy transitions.…”

Section: The Dimensions Of Urban Energy Transitions Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was not until the late 1990s when industrial enterprises such as Himin (founded in 1996) started to produce complete machines at a large scale that the market for SWHs was opened up and expanded rapidly. After that, entrepreneurs actively mobilized resources, in terms of diffusing knowledge, attracting investment, and creating legitimacy (Huang et al 2018b). In the early 1990s, the mayor supported the local solar panel industry by providing subsidies to firms engaged in solar technology research to encourage the continued expansion of the sector (interview, RZ4), which eventually led to an integral SWH policy in 2004.…”

Section: Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal perspectives on urban energy transitions: a comparative study of three cities in China

et al. 2020

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This paper develops an integrated framework to study the socio-spatial and temporal dimensions of urban energy transitions to investigate the development and spread of solar energy technologies in urban China. A comparative analysis of three case studies of solar energy transitions in the cities of Foshan (in Guangdong), Rizhao (in Shandong), and Wuxi (in Jiangsu) demonstrates the framework’s applicability. The results map each city’s trajectory towards low carbon energy. Transitions result from dynamic interactions among central and local governments, solar manufacturers, solar installers, and residents. Alongside industrial strategies, locally-specific factors have a determining influence on the eventual outcomes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Dimensions Of Urban Energy Transitions Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal perspectives on urban energy transitions: a comparative study of three cities in China

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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“…In Suzhou and Shanghai, some studies [44,58,66] suggest that enterprises are essential players in the LCC in China, as they are the chief consumer of energy and their role is to apply technological innovations for sustainable energy system and commercialization. In Rizhao and Shenzhen, Huang et al [176] suggest that enterprises act as intermediaries in the transition process as so-called "policy-industry dissonance" towards the development of solutions and their implementation. This study found that their interests in low carbon technological innovation are still low.…”

Section: Equitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Low Carbon City Initiatives in China: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Hunter

Sagoe²,

Vettorato

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Low carbon city (LCC) has emerged as the latest sustainable urbanism strategy in China as a response to climate change impacts. Yet, minimal scholarships have explored the sustainability of the urban planning model towards understanding the complexity of the components. Using a two-step triangulation approach, this paper presents a structured overview of the LCC initiative in China as it relates to the transition to a sustainability paradigm. The data collection approach includes a comprehensive review of 238 articles on LCC to identify and categorize LCC components. Furthermore, discourse and framing analysis was used to develop and synthesize a conceptual framework for assimilating the components into four core sustainable development principles: Integration, implementation, equity, and scalability and replicability. The results indicate that LCC development in China is bias towards economic and environmental technological innovations and strategies. Additionally, several critical sustainability issues of LCC pilots were identified. These include a lack of social equity planning concerns for the most vulnerable population, dearth of social reforms that cater to lifestyle and behavioral change, top-down planning and decision-making processes, a technocratic rationalization planning approach, inconsistent LCC targets on inter-generational justice concerns, absence of an effective national "sharing and learning" city-city network system, and several barriers to implementation. We conclude that the applied theoretical and conceptual inquiry into the field of LCC is pertinent to mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable urban development.Sustainability 2019, 11, 4342 2 of 37 consumption [14][15][16][17]. This increasing energy consumption and coal dependency of the urban energy system has increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as China has become the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter [18,19]. A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics [20] suggests that despite a decline in GHG emissions between 2013 and 2016, emissions grew by 2.3% in 2018 due to a surge in urban construction. Therefore, after three decades of rapid physical and socio-spatial modernization, the country is facing significant negative externalities [16]. Local environmental pollution [6,16,[21][22][23], ecological deterioration [24], and energy shortage [21,25] have created health risks [26], have affected people's quality of life [27], and resulted in substantial economic losses [28] in megacities such as Tianjin and Beijing [29]. Concomitantly, China's cities are vulnerable to climate change impacts [17,30], as some cities have inadequate seawall defenses in low-lying areas [5], and are therefore exposed to flooding and extreme rainstorms [23]. In addition to this, some experience droughts from reduced precipitation, which can be attributed to low urban institutional capacity that creates limitations in climate governance and planning [31]. These complex and intractable problems have heralded a call for action, t...

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“…Current societal systems are considered to be unsustainable from a long-term viewpoint and require structural changes to restore balance in the environment based on values of equity and justice [8]. Tackling these issues needs to reconsider the socio-technical, economic, institutional and environmental factors [9]. This is where transition theory is needed and can be effective, because it "provides an integrated analytical approach to conceptualise and understand complex, long-term processes of societal change as multi-causal, multi-actor, multi-level and multi-phase processes, and suggests a new mode of governance, transition management" [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing renewable energy transition in conflict contexts: investigating the institutional context in Palestine

Khaldi

Sunikka-Blank

2020

Energy Transit

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In response to pressures imposed on the energy sector, several countries in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region have committed to increasing the percentage of renewable energy to reach 15-50% of the energy supply by 2030. New governance models are required to conceptualise and guide the energy transition into a more sustainable direction. Therefore, this paper employed the transition management governance framework to answer the questions of who is governing the renewable energy transition in Palestine, and in what ways it is achieved. The analysis is based on three levels: strategic (problem structuring and envisioning), tactical (coalition building, developing transition agenda), and operational (mobilising actors and implementing experiments). Accordingly, key energy-related institutions are examined in terms of their visions, capacities and scope of influence using semi-structured interviews, roundtable discussions, and a survey. The conducted policy analysis suggests that the Palestinian energy sector started experiencing profound changes that affected all actors who had to adapt or transform to remain active, in addition to the rise of various multi-level actors. The analysis also shows that actors are more connected compared to the conventional energy system. Findings suggest that the spread of renewable technologies was not the outcome of only top-down schemes; instead, it is achieved throughout the collaboration of multi-level institutions and increasing reliance on horizontal-based governance networks. The paper uses examples to imply that it is possible to overcome the agglomeration of restrictions imposed on the Palestinian energy sector due to conflict if established regimes support governance networks and local-level initiatives.

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The governance of urban energy transitions: A comparative study of solar water heating systems in two Chinese cities

Cited by 54 publications

References 38 publications

Spatiotemporal perspectives on urban energy transitions: a comparative study of three cities in China

Spatiotemporal perspectives on urban energy transitions: a comparative study of three cities in China

Sustainability of Low Carbon City Initiatives in China: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Governing renewable energy transition in conflict contexts: investigating the institutional context in Palestine

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