Sustainable development in energy policy : a governance assessment of environmental stakeholder inclusion in waste-to-energy

The author would like to think the British Academy for a generous grant on WtE in France.The inclusion of environmental interest groups in policy-making is said to provide greater legitimacy (Bernauer and Gampfer, 2013), accountability (Feldman and Blokov, 2009), new policy preferences (Bunea, 2013) and, ultimately, pro-environmental outcomes (Bohmelt and Betzold, 2013). This paper focuses on the development of inclusive governance structures and processes (with regard to environmental interests) in waste-to-energy policy designed to facilitate pro-environmental outcomes in the generation of 'clean' renewable energy within the national context of France. Empirically, the paper argues that change in long-term exclusionary patterns in energy policy remains enduringly weak. Normatively, environmental 'inclusivity' (i.e. the construction of meaningful pluralistic structures and processes) as a mechanism for achieving the prioritization of environmental concerns should become a central objective for energy policy, and more generally in the environmental policy integration literature.PostprintPeer reviewe

Framing injustice in green criminology : activism, social movements and geography

Injustice is perceived, experienced and articulated. Social movements, and their constitutive parts, frame and re-frame these senses of injustice. Two often-overlapping accounts of social movements are in focus in this chapter. Human geography has been flooded with movement-based analyses of environmental justice (EJ). Sociology (more appropriately political sociology) has provided insight into social movements in the form of ‘contentious politics’ (CP). Building on both sets of literature, this chapter seeks to advance thought in human geography through a detailed exploration of master and collective action framing. It argues, firstly, that framing analysis challenges activist researchers to retain ‘spatial constructs’ as their central focus, rather than discourse. It calls, secondly, for us to unbind injustice as much as justice in our analysis of framing. And lastly, it demands a multi-spatial perspective on framing beyond simply scalar accounts.PostprintPeer reviewe

The policy challenge of waste-to-energy : lessons from France

National policy-making is increasingly re-orienting towards the common goal of achieving effective renewable energy solutions. This paper focuses on the policy challenges of technological advances in energy recovery from waste designed to facilitate the generation of ‘clean’ renewable energy on a national scale. France is now a world leader in the promotion of this ‘new’ energy solution. The sustainability of the French approach to waste-to-energy is however threatened by its failure to successfully incorporate and engage with societal input. An assessment of policy structures reveals a crippling division between anti-incineration attitudes expressed in waste management and support displayed in energy policy making.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Just Transitions

This chapter details how the just transition scholarship has yet to substantively engage with normative justice scholarship, particularly in identifying what the notion of a transition or transitions should be. Instead, issues central to the tradition have centred on workers’ rights, in addition to issues related to energy production and distribution at local scales. Despite this, McCauley notes the potential presented by the lack of engagement with justice theorising. The under-theorisation of distributive and procedural forms of justice would usefully frame discourse, he notes. For instance, distributive and procedural forms of justice could help frame how workers are affected by shifting geographies of carbon and decarbonised development projects. Here, McCauley argues that the notion of vulnerability should become more central to transitions research, particularly as it relates to recognition and responsibility through the transition away from fossil fuel-intensive developments, thus placing workers and families as subjects of injustice. McCauley thus points us to the ways in which the just transition scholarship remains open for engagement with justice theorising

Energy Justice

This chapter identifies how energy has been conceptualised as a good to be produced, distributed and consumed, illustrating close theoretical engagement with the forms of justice. As Sidortsov and McCauley note, given the tradition’s focus on energy systems as a whole, emerging contributions to this scholarship stress the importance of, and need for, recognitional and restorative approaches to justice. In particular, the authors identify a need for those affected by changes in energy systems to be heard and legitimised participants in decision-making regarding these infrastructural challenges. In addition, the authors highlight the connectivity and fluidity of this still novel body of justice scholarship, illustrating its overlapping, yet unique, foundations regarding energy as a primary object of justice analyses

Just transition:Integrating climate, energy and environmental justice

In terms of funders, we thank the ESRC (ES/I001425/1) and EPSRC (EP/I035390/1) and UKERC (http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/news/whole-systems-networking-fund-project-announcement.html) for supporting the development of our work in this area.Just transition is a new framework of analysis that brings together climate, energy and environmental justice scholarships. It was originally coined as a term that was designed to link the promotion of clean technology with the assurance of green jobs. The Paris climate change agreement marks a global acceptance that a more rapid transition is needed to avert disastrous consequences. In response, climate, energy and environmental justice scholarships must unite in assessing where injustices will emerge and how they should be tackled. Just transition offers a new space for developing an interdisciplinary transition sensitive approach to exploring and promoting (1) distributional, (2) procedural and (3) restorative justice, termed here as a new triumvirate of tenets.PostprintPeer reviewe

Energy security, equality and justice

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