scholarly journals Gender just energy policy : engendering the energy transition in Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariëlle Feenstra
2021 ◽  
pp. 313-343
Author(s):  
Lena Maria Schaffer ◽  
Alessio Levis

AbstractEnergy transitions are based upon policy choices of sovereign nation states. Hence, politics plays a role in determining which policies governments implement and which sectors are targeted. Our chapter looks at the evolution of public discourse on energy policy as one important factor reflecting policy discussion and contestation within the political arena. Our descriptive and explorative analysis of the early public discourse in Swiss energy policy between 1997 and 2011 contributes to three main issues. First, it makes a case for the disaggregation of energy policy and its public perception to add to our understanding of energy transition pathways. We argue that looking at sectoral discourses as well as sectoral policy outputs allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the idiosyncrasies of Swiss energy policy regarding temporal as well as sectoral variation. Second, an increased politicization of energy policy may affect future policy choice, and thus any account on energy transition policy needs to scrutinize potential feedback effects from policies that manifest via policy discourse. Third, and on a more methodological stance, we argue that our approach to use news media as a representation of the public discourse via structural topic models can help to explore and explain the evolving national policy priorities regarding energy transition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Iqbal Akbar ◽  
◽  
Dhandy Arisaktiwardhana ◽  
Prima Naomi ◽  

The aim to achieve the target of a 23% share of sustainable energies in the total Indonesia’s primary energy supply requires enormous amounts of works. Indonesia’s scientific knowledge production can support a successful transition to renewables. However, policy makers struggle to determine how the transition benefits from the scientific production on renewable. A bibliometric study using scientific publication data from the Web of Science (WoS) is used to probe how Indonesian scientific knowledge production can support the policy design for transition to sustainable energy. The seven focused disciplines are geothermal, solar, wind, hydro, bio, hybrid, and energy policy and economics. Based on the data from the above-listed disciplines, a deeper analysis is conducted, and implications to the policy design are constructed. The study reveals that bio energy is the focus of the research topics produced in Indonesia, followed by solar and hydro energy. Most RE research is related to the applied sciences. The innovation capability in the form of technology modifiers and technology adapters supports the transition to sustainable energy in Indonesia. The research on bio energy, however, is characterized by higher basic knowledge than research on solar and hydro energy. This suggests low barriers to the access to the resources and to the completion of bio research in Indonesia. Designing Indonesian energy policy by comprising discriminatively specific sustainable energy sources in the main policy instruments can therefore accelerate the sustainable transition and development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Schmid ◽  
Thomas Meister ◽  
Britta Klagge ◽  
Irmi Seidl

Participation of citizens in local energy decisions is increasingly recognized as helpful for a successful decentralized energy transition. In this article, we focus on energy cooperatives in which private individuals jointly develop facilities to generate energy from renewable sources, thus involving citizens both politically and economically. Focusing on Switzerland and Germany, we show that there is a strong linkage between such cooperatives and municipalities, characterized by collaboration and support, and that the cooperatives are well suited as collaborating partners. We also show that federalist structures are most suited for such local arrangements as municipalities must have leeway to support cooperatives in a targeted manner and to compensate for shortcomings in the energy policy of superordinate governmental levels. Based on these results, we suggest that local governments should be given sufficient financial capacities and autonomy to strengthen implementation of a decentralized energy transition that involves citizens. However, we also recognize that municipal structures alone are often insufficient and that superordinate policies, especially national subsidies, remain essential. Hence, policies at the municipal and national levels should take greater account of citizen initiatives, such as energy cooperatives, which exhibit various noncommodifiable advantages relevant to the energy transition.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 8165
Author(s):  
Sylwia Mrozowska ◽  
Jan A. Wendt ◽  
Krzysztof Tomaszewski

The ongoing climate changes necessitate an effective climate policy. The energy transition is now an important topic and problem, especially in Poland. (1) The undertaken analysis of the problem of energy transition is important for political, social and technological reasons. Political, because it shows the weakness of the implementation of Polish energy policy in regards to climate change. Social, because energy transition will bring about significant social changes in the largest industrial region of Poland. Technological, as the departure from fossil fuels requires the introduction of other sources of energy on a massive scale, for which Poland is not prepared. The aim of the study was to critically analyse the activities to date in the field of energy transition in Poland. The second goal of the analysis was an attempt to answer the question of whether the process of energy transition and achieving the goals set in the EU’s European Green Deal are possible at all until 2050. (2) To achieve the goals, the system method and the decision-making method were primarily used. These methods allowed for an examination of the main determinants of the Polish energy transformation. (3) The main results include the confirmation, contrary to the announcements of the Polish government, that despite the adoption in Poland of the strategy “Poland’s energy policy until 2040”, the effective implementation of the energy transition before 2050 is not only very difficult, but may even be impossible to implement in the assumed time. This is due to political, economic, social and technological conditions. Coal energy is outdated, expensive and ineffective. Due to natural conditions, wind energy is not able to meet the energy demand of the industry. The development of nuclear energy is only in the planning phase. (4) To sum up, in the next thirty years, Poland will not be able to achieve the assumed effects of the energy transition, which is in contradiction with the official declaration of the government.


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