Three sides to every story: Gender perspectives in energy transition pathways in Canada, Kenya and Spain

Transitions toward a low-carbon future are not only technical and economical, but also deeply social and gendered. The gendered nature of energy transitions is often implicit and unexplored. As a corrective, this paper explores energy pathways by applying concepts from innovations and gender studies. We examine gender perspectives and niche energy innovations which could disrupt the regime. The regime represents the mainstream pathway that includes the dominant gender perspective and energy system. We explore different gender perspectives of energy transition pathways by applying an Alternative Pathways framework that includes: (1) on-stream pathways that exist within the mainstream pathway to promote equal opportunities for women and men, as well as niches for energy innovations without challenging the high-carbon energy regime; (2) off-stream pathways that depart from the mainstream and promote differences across different genders while creating niches outside the energy regime; and (3) transformative pathways that are fundamentally different from the previous mainstream and includes all gender perspectives in a new energy regime. Applying this framing, in Canada, we explored Indigenous perspectives in the oil sands sector; in Kenya, we studied largescale renewable energy impacting Indigneous communities; in Spain, we evaluate the movement away from fossil fuels and towards renewable technologies. The framework helped to identify that mainstream pathways represented the dominant male perspective while woman's perspective were largely left out. Such absence generate energy pathways that are disconnected from local realities, lack public buy-in and slow-down a sustainable energy transition. © 2020 The Author(s)We would like to acknowledge the feedback of the two anonymous reviews as well as the TRANSrisk consortium members. We would also like to acknowledge the Maria de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714 of BC3

Potentials and barriers to land-based mitigation technologies and practices (LMTs)—a review

Land-based mitigation technologies and practices (LMTs) are critical for achieving the Paris Agreement’s aim of avoiding dangerous climate change by limiting the rise in average global surface temperatures. We developed a detailed two-level classification and analysis of the barriers to the adoption and scaling up of LMTs. The review suggests that afforestation/reforestation and forest management are LMTs with wide application and high potential across all continents. BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) and biochar have a higher potential in higher-income countries in the short term, due to the availability of technology, funding, and low-cost biomass value chains. Although most LMTs can be cost-effective across multiple world regions, limited knowledge concerning their implementation and insufficient financing appear to be the main barriers to their large-scale deployment. Without considering gender and the rights of marginalised and Indigenous Peoples, the large-scale deployment of LMTs can further aggravate existing inequalities. Therefore, the social and institutional implications of LMTs need to be better understood to improve their public acceptance and reduce negative impacts. An integrated system approach is necessary to strike a balance between ambitious land-based mitigation targets and socioeconomic and environmental goals.Learning & Autonomous ControlOrganisation & Governanc