Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"Carbon emissions in metal manufacturing productivity: A global analysis of aluminium smelting","authors":"Shabbir Ahmad ,&nbsp;John Steen ,&nbsp;Tomasz Zajac ,&nbsp;Mehdi Azadi ,&nbsp;Saleem H. Ali","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104343","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104343","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aluminium industry generates over a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually, contributing to global emissions significantly. To become a part of the sustainable economy, this carbon-intensive industry needs improved productivity to reduce its carbon footprint. Given the ubiquity of aluminium usage in a wide array of consumer and industrial products and its high production energy requirements, assessing the carbon component of productivity can have significant climate mitigation impacts. This paper examines the cost efficiency of carbon emissions embedded in the aluminium smelting sector. It refers to the point at which a smelter minimizes its cost for a given output level by optimally using input resources. Specifically, it investigates the energy-specific technology gaps that affect aluminium sector productivity, utilizing unique global smelter-level data from 2004 to 2020. This is the first study comparing smelters' cost efficiency using different energy sources and technologies. It estimates the Meta-Technology-Ratio (MTR), which measures how close a smelter is to the frontier, representing the use of the best available technology while being environmentally efficient. The analysis underscores the potential for reducing the technology gap in coal- and gas-powered smelters through modernization and efficiency improvements while highlighting renewables and nuclear power as leading options for aligning with the most efficient, cutting-edge technologies in aluminium smelting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104343"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145221800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corporate lobbying, agribusiness, and climate change politics in Brazil's bioenergy transition","authors":"L.L.B. Lazaro ,&nbsp;L.L. Giatti ,&nbsp;A.F. Simoes ,&nbsp;A. Giarolla ,&nbsp;P.R. Jacobi ,&nbsp;J.A.P. Oliveira","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104353","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104353","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lobbying has been the subject of scholarly inquiry for decades and is widely recognized as a long-standing and legitimate component of democratic governance and the policymaking process. Neither inherently good nor bad, the democratic value of lobbying depends on its transparency, accountability, and alignment with the public interest. When it is opaque or unaccountable, lobbying raises serious concerns about power asymmetries, undue influence, issues of justice, and the erosion of the public interest. This article examines the political activity of bioenergy companies in Brazil, a key player in global debates on the low-carbon energy transition. For this purpose, we first develop an analytical framework based on a review of the scientific literature on lobbying and corporate political activity (CPA) from 1970 to April 2025. This framework includes four dimensions: strategic-instrumental, critical, normative-ethical, and political corporate social responsibility- and governance-oriented perspectives. Using this framework, we analyze how Brazilian bioenergy companies engage in political dynamics by examining sustainability reports, corporate documents, media articles, government documents, and NGO publications from 2007 to 2020. For data analysis, we apply topic modeling and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, specifically BERTopic and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Our findings reveal that these companies actively coordinate their political engagement, particularly through industry associations such as the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), and benefit from the support of the Parliamentary Agribusiness Group, given their agribusiness-oriented profile and shared regulatory interests. Their political strategies are embedded in powerful socio-technical imaginaries and discourses that frame bioenergy as a solution to climate change, energy security, and rural development. However, these narratives remain contested, particularly regarding socio-environmental concerns. This study contributes to understanding corporate lobbying in sustainability transitions by showing that lobbying is a key part of the political process, which both shapes and is shaped by disputes over energy futures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104353"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145222520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A powerless alternative? Citizen participation, private actors, and corporate dominance in the contested rollout of renewable energy communities in Portugal","authors":"Vera Ferreira","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104360","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104360","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent European Union policy developments, particularly the Renewable Energy Directive II (2018), have promoted the decentralization of renewable energy (RE) and introduced legal frameworks for collective organization, such as Renewable Energy Communities (RECs). In Portugal, where community-led initiatives were virtually absent before RED II's partial transposition, the concept of “(renewable) energy community” has recently gained prominence. This article presents the first systematic mapping and preliminary characterization of 160 collective and decentralized RE initiatives reported in Portuguese online media between March 2020 and March 2025. The initiatives are analyzed along four dimensions: implementation site, actors, legal status, and stated goals. The findings highlight the predominance of collective self-consumption projects, largely promoted by private energy and technology companies, and the very limited number of legally recognized RECs. The study shows that the term “renewable energy community” has been widely applied across diverse legal and organizational formats, often by incumbent market actors. This discursive appropriation risks diluting the concept's normative foundations and legitimizing market-led approaches through “community-washing”. While collective self-consumption can provide environmental and social benefits, including lower energy costs and potential contributions to alleviating energy poverty, it often falls short of enabling meaningful democratic participation in RE governance. By documenting these dynamics in Portugal, this article advances international debates on community renewable energy and energy democracy, particularly in under-researched Southern European contexts. It underscores the need to investigate the barriers constraining RECs and to assess whether current trajectories foster a more democratic energy transition or reproduce existing power asymmetries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104360"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145222522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Smart thermostats, washing machines, and electric vehicle charging: Determinants of preferences among German and Spanish consumers","authors":"Gloria Amaris ,&nbsp;Stepan Vesely ,&nbsp;Christian A. Klöckner","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104344","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104344","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Data from three stated choice experiments conducted in Germany and Spain with over 2500 participants provide new evidence on the determinants of consumer preferences for smart thermostats, smart electric vehicle charging, and smart scheduling of washing machine operation. Our findings reveal that across the three technologies, financial savings, the opportunity to consume energy generated from renewables, and technological benefits, such as vehicle-to-home capabilities, can increase consumer adoption of smart energy technologies. Participants were generally hesitant to fully cede control to automation. In the case of smart charging, they were resistant to deviations from their preferred battery charge (e.g., the battery not being fully charged). On the other hand, when it came to smart thermostats, respondents showed willingness to accept small deviations from their preferred room temperature. Using a hybrid choice model that combines attitudinal responses and stated preference data to capture underlying behavioral drivers, we also show how environmental concern, personal norms, social norms, and pro-environmental habits influence consumer choices. Our findings provide new insights into the interplay of behavioral and technological factors and guidance for more targeted strategies to enhance adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104344"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145222515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leading the pack or lagging behind? Validating a simple measure to prospectively identify adopter categories for low emission technologies","authors":"Joshua D. Newton ,&nbsp;Jubin Jacob John ,&nbsp;Jeff D. Rotman ,&nbsp;Virginia Weber ,&nbsp;Jay Zenkić","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104366","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104366","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Adopting low emission technologies will be fundamental to mitigating climate change, yet many consumers have yet to do so. Rogers' (2003) diffusion of innovations model, and its categorisation of consumers to motivationally distinct adopter categories defined by how fast an innovation is adopted, would appear to be a useful tool for addressing this challenge, allowing low emission technology adoption strategies to be tailored to consumers in different adopter categories. Preventing this potential application, however, is the retrospective means by which adopter category classification traditionally occurs. The purpose of this research was therefore to evaluate a prospective method for determining adopter category: asking consumers to self-identify the low emission technology adopter category to which they belong. Across two Australian samples (combined <em>n</em> = 2645), we found that current and planned adoption patterns for three low emission technologies (electric vehicles, electric space heating, electric/solar water heating) were generally consistent with those theorised by Rogers, even after controlling for potential barriers to adoption (e.g., financial resources, length of time residing in one's home, adoption costs). The one exception was for innovators vs. early adopters, where no consistent adoption differences were observed. Notwithstanding this exception, self-identified adopter category represents a valid and expeditious means for prospectively classifying a consumer's adopter category, allowing for the development of low emission technology adoption strategies that are tailored to the motivational profile of each adopter category.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104366"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145221801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From the C-suite to the sea suite: Rethinking frontier offshore petroleum amid environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and climate change realities","authors":"Nathan Nurse ,&nbsp;Malte Jansen","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104349","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104349","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Offshore petroleum operations in the United States Gulf of Mexico have signaled toward expansion in scale and complexity over the next decade, despite climate change commitments and the broader low-carbon energy transition. Consequently, the operational risk exposure endured by safety, environmental, and social receptors may increase with the simultaneous persistence of climate impacts and intensification of offshore extraction activities. Moreover, although the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster off the coast of Louisiana influenced reform and a wealth of academic research, recent scientific consensus has identified persistent systemic gaps in safety culture, regulatory oversight and supply chain management, as corrective action has stagnated amid slow regulatory initiative, industry implementation and incentivization deficiencies.</div><div>With the emergence and momentum of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) expectations imposed by financial sectors on publicly traded petroleum companies, industry faces increased pressure when considering corporate value generation, operational integrity and sustainability. The implementation of ESG can be a complex endeavor and highlights the importance of corporate and field-level process integration, and by extension, effective supply chain management. Accordingly, we discuss the relative persistent operational gaps identified in literature, the perspectives of key stakeholders; and the potential implications for social, environmental, and safety risk receptors pertaining to petroleum operations in the United States Gulf of Mexico. This article is presented as a ‘perspective’ piece, offering a critical synthesis of current challenges and opportunities in offshore petroleum ESG integration. Through this lens, we highlight the need for gap closure and risk mitigation, outlining areas of focus that are, in our view, both realistic and effectual. We discuss realistic and actionable pathways for bridging ESG implementation gaps and enhancing risk mitigation, with the goal of informing future research and policy development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104349"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145222521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"50 shades of hydrogen: A perspective on definitions in science and public communication","authors":"Philipp Weisenburger","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104346","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104346","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Discussions about the transition to hydrogen in various applications have become an important topic in recent years. A key factor for an effective transition is public acceptance of hydrogen technologies. However, the increase in acceptance depends, among other things, on individual knowledge about the hydrogen colors and the linked hydrogen production pathways currently under discussion. In communications, colors such as green, grey and blue are used to distinguish hydrogen sources. With new research, additional colors have become necessary. Unfortunately, there is no unified definition for the colors.</div><div>The aim of this perspective is to identify the most frequent hydrogen colors used by scientists and the public, derive open definitions and propose a solution to a representation problem. The general use of hydrogen colors in communication and the implications on public acceptance are briefly outlined. We then identified definitions for colors associated with a specific pathway and discussed some discrepancies between science and media use. To make better use of the existing colors, more open definitions were formulated. We point out the representation problem with shades of a color and provide a connection between the assigned color and a view-independent RGB color code as proposal. The derived definitions can be used to unify communication in science and public media.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104346"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Picking up the slack: Faith-based organizations, informal support networks and energy insecurity, poverty, and vulnerability in the southeastern United States","authors":"Elena Louder ,&nbsp;Conor Harrison ,&nbsp;Nikki Luke","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104350","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104350","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on energy insecurity has boomed. However, energy assistance, an essential piece of the energy insecurity puzzle, is neglected in existing literature. Furthermore, extant literature focuses mostly on official sources of assistance funded through federal programs. In this paper, we contend that current research paints a limited picture of the landscape of assistance. Based on qualitative interviews with assistance providers and households in five energy vulnerable communities in South Carolina and Tennessee, we present a more complete panorama of the places people turn to for help. We find that while federal programs serve a small number of those in need, many people turn to informal networks such as family, churches, and faith-based organizations as primary sources of assistance. We analyze this reliance on informal networks and faith-based organizations as part and parcel of the dismantling of the welfare state and downshifting of responsibility in the context of neoliberalization. These findings advance debates in energy vulnerability literature in two ways. First, we argue that this more comprehensive understanding of where people turn for help opens the door to a political critique of growing energy vulnerability as a symptom of neoliberal social policy and the erosion of social reproduction. Second, we argue that current scholarly approaches which rely on quantitative modeling to describe the landscape of energy vulnerability are usefully complemented by a broader range of methodological and theoretical approaches. We need rich, qualitative data to move beyond description and towards more critical, and political understanding and advocacy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104350"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Justice in transition: Contesting narratives and converging interpretations in India's energy shift","authors":"Jay Ganesh Pandey,&nbsp;Atul Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104333","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104333","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The discourses on ensuring justice in energy transition are termed widely as just transition. In India, these discourses are at a nascent stage. Given the deep entrenchment of coal in India, the justice elements in energy transition are perceived distinctly and articulated differently by various stakeholders. Mapping these diverse perspectives offers valuable insights with significant policy implications, particularly in the context of phasing down coal. This study endeavoured to identify and explore varying interpretations of just transition among key stakeholder groups in India. It also analysed the areas of convergences and divergences between the stakeholders' perspectives. This study employs thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews and supporting policy documents to identify six key justice themes and synthesise three stakeholder-informed visions of just transition in India. These three visions are (a) just transition as an integrated framework of justice, (b) just transition for all, and (c) Just transition as a key to sustainable development. Together, these visions not only align with the global literature on just transition but also offer actionable pathways and policy guidance tailored to India's unique developmental and energy landscape. A key strategic insight emerging from the analysis is the emphasis on regional transformation through economic diversification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104333"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Collective climate geoengineering futures through a global participatory technology foresight exercise","authors":"Benjamin K. Sovacool ,&nbsp;Laurence L. Delina ,&nbsp;Ben Martin","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104329","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104329","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change, like other Grand Challenges, raises fundamental issues with how to ensure the public feel fully involved in developing necessary interventions. Technology foresight potentially offers a means to achieve this. This study presents the results of a technology foresight exercise that explores potential climate futures involving climate interventions such as carbon removal and solar geoengineering. We utilize an innovative approach that integrates elements of science and technology foresight with participatory research—instead, “participatory technology foresight”. Our empirical analysis concentrates on emerging climate geoengineering technologies, including direct air capture, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, stratospheric aerosol injection, and marine cloud brightening. Methodologically, we develop an original and comprehensive dataset drawn from 44 public focus groups in both urban and rural settings across 22 countries. Our analysis identified five distinct yet collective climate geoengineering futures: A Global Green Belt, Urban Carbon Gardens, A Scientific Revolution in Soils, Crop Failure and Cancer associated with stratospheric aerosol injection, and An Interplanetary Sunshield. The study examines these futures regarding opportunities and threats as well as the actors involved. The study concludes that participatory technology foresight provides a particularly valuable tool for fully engaging the public in developing policies to confront Grand Challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104329"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145160015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}