{"title":"First Nations at the forefront: The changing landscape of clean energy agreements in Australia","authors":"Lily O'Neill , Kathryn Thorburn","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The clean energy transition has the potential to be very beneficial for the Australian First Nations people on whose Country much of it will occur. This paper documents results of interviews with legal and financial experts who have very particular insight into the contents of benefits agreements currently being negotiated with First Nations groups for large scale clean energy developments – agreements which are conventionally confidential. The results of our analysis give reason for cautious optimism in this space, confirming that First Nations people in Australia have the legal ability to veto clean energy projects on Country. We note the wider impacts of this emergent power of veto, which makes consent more valuable to developers, but also might encourage developers to avoid First Nations Country altogether. We further observe that as First Nations groups become key stakeholders, or co-owners, in these kinds of development, they also can become exposed to significant financial risk. The need to access excellent advice for First Nations groups in Australia who are navigating these projects – as developers, co-owners, shareholders, board members and contractors – is more urgent than ever.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104183"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365237","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":"Social licence in principle and practice: industrial decarbonisation in regional clusters","authors":"Diarmaid Clery, Sarah Mander, Clair Gough","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104187","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104187","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Securing a social licence to operate (SLO) for novel technologies to decarbonise energy-intensive industrial processes in line with the Paris Agreement hinges on their perception as credible and legitimate solutions for climate change mitigation. This will depend on mutual trust between industry, government and civil society actors at different scales, with a broad alignment of these diverse perspectives around a common intent. This research extends the SLO framework and its application in three ways. Firstly, at a conceptual level, by considering how an SLO may be interpreted for a combination of technologies designed to deliver decarbonisation across different new and existing industries. Secondly, engaging with professional stakeholders and local publics in the Northwest and Humber clusters in the UK to examine how the SLO is evolving for industrial decarbonisation in principle, as part of national climate strategy, and as ‘real-world’ implementation begins in practice. Thirdly, an outline heuristic is proposed to inform how the legitimacy, credibility and trust associated with ID processes in different contexts might be improved in support of a stronger SLO. Drawing on experience of developing new infrastructure within the UK clusters, this research provides transferable insights which can inform the global deployment of ID technologies. As a SLO is emerging for the use of ID technologies in principle, and as projects become closer to deployment, whether its delivery is seen as credible and legitimate in practice, with sufficient trust within the cluster to instil confidence in construction and operation phases remains uncertain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104187"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365347","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":"Did clean cooking interventions fail or succeed? Community insights from rural India","authors":"Kelechukwu Kelvin Ibe , Shiva Prasad Kollur","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104196","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104196","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Various clean cooking intervention programs have been initiated over the years by the government, academia and non-governmental organisations to ensure universal clean and modern energy for all. Assessment of these projects is necessary to scale up the intervention or re-strategise the approach for more effectiveness and efficiency. This study took a qualitative approach to assess three clean cooking interventions (PMUY, Improved Cookstove and Smokeless Chulha) in Guptapada, a rural village in Khordha district, Odisha, India. A three-step research approach involving participant identification and selection using purposive and simple random sampling, data collection via interviews (48), key informant discussions (8), and focus group discussions (9) and data analysis and interpretation using thematic analysis was used. Insights from the study's results show that the clean cooking projects did not yield corresponding success stemming from economic difficulty, awareness, the COVID-19 pandemic, misconceptions, and stove performance, among others. Based on these, recommendations such as integrating awareness and the theory of change framework as part of clean cooking interventions were made for effective approaches to tackling clean cooking in rural and remote villages and ensuring that current and future interventions fulfil the objective among the rural populace. This study contributes to the existing knowledge base through a user-based experience of three different interventions offering pathways for fueling change towards clean cooking interventions and effective adoption in rural India. This leads to an increase in the proportion of population with primary reliance on clean cooking fuels and technology for cooking (Target 7.1.2) and renewable energy share (Target 7.2.1).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104196"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365236","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":"Digitalization, autonomy and the future of energy policy","authors":"Fabian Heymann , Sinan Küfeoğlu , Matthias Galus","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104167","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104167","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital technologies and the increasing availability and use of data are transforming policymaking worldwide. While many studies have carved out the current effects, benefits and risks of data and digital technologies for policymaking, little attempts have been made to analyze the potential directions these trends will eventually lead to. Using a conceptual lens, we start by briefly describing the digitalization phenomena and how digital technologies are currently adopted along the policymaking cycle, with a special emphasis on energy policy. Building on these findings, and lending theoretical foundations from autonomous systems and control, we develop an outlook on the potential evolution of energy policymaking under further digitalization. Applying the elaborated 6-staged framework of autonomy in policymaking, we show that energy policymaking witnesses a mostly unnoted shift towards higher autonomy levels, being only halfway from what would be fully autonomous policymaking. The increasingly automated policymaking process, in energy policy and beyond, does raise important societal questions - on the technical design, societal trade-offs and ethical dilemmas that should become urgently addressed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104167"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330217","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":"Unlocking geographic differences: from adopters to the public in driving the uptake of flexible energy practices—the case of Norway","authors":"Yechennan Peng , Christian A. Klöckner","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104179","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104179","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Flexible energy management solutions have been proven to enhance energy supply security and optimise consumption. Despite their technical efficacy of these solutions, user acceptance remains a subject of ongoing debate. However, research into the spatial variation of the factors that influence adoption rates is still in its infancy. This study scaled up individual-level household survey data from Norway to investigate how the factors that influence household adoption of flexible energy use vary at the municipal level, between highly and less centralised municipalities, and between regions with different electricity prices. Our findings reveal several key insights: First, despite substantial differences in electricity prices, these differences do not significantly account for the variation in the adoption rate of flexible energy practices. Second, the primary drivers of adoption differ considerably between highly centralised and less centralised municipalities. Centrality here denotes a municipality's integration into urban networks, reflected by access to infrastructure, services, and population density. Wealth remains a significant factor in both contexts. Living in multi-family houses promotes flexible energy use in highly centralised municipalities, but hinders it in less centralised areas. In addition, dwelling age and electricity tariffs vary markedly with centralisation. Closing the gap in psychological variables, such as attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy, and motivation, between adopters and the public is crucial for expanding adoption. These insights emphasise the importance of context-specific policies and address specific challenges, in order to effectively enhance the adoption of flexible energy solutions in less centralised municipalities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104179"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330314","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}
Hugh Breakey, Larelle Bossi, Rebecca Marshallsay, Charles Sampford
{"title":"Benefits or bribes? Ethical concerns with the potential corruption of civic obligations through community benefits schemes for wind farms","authors":"Hugh Breakey, Larelle Bossi, Rebecca Marshallsay, Charles Sampford","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104154","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104154","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Community benefit schemes have become a common feature of new energy industries, and are especially prevalent in renewable energy developments like wind farms. These schemes arise when businesses—either under their own discretion or in compliance with policy mechanisms—establish systems to deliver in-kind and monetary goods to local communities. The schemes may be morally justified on several grounds, including compensation and distributive fairness. Yet almost from their beginning, community benefit schemes have faced accusations that they amount to <em>bribery</em>. While prior research has illuminated the empirical factors likely to lead to such allegations, this paper employs normative theory to help developers and policymakers better understand when and how this ‘bribery’ accusation articulates a genuine ethical concern. Community benefits schemes are not bribes strictly speaking; they do not involve secret and illegal abuses of power. However, they can influence community members to forgo their civic and stewardship obligations—such as to attend to a local development's potential environmental or cultural impacts—in favour of their self-interest. Fortunately, strategically designed community benefit schemes can deliver important moral goods while minimising the ethical concern that they inappropriately influence civic decision-making. The paper enumerates four key policy principles for designing such schemes for new energy developments: avoiding bribes is a matter of prioritising ethically mandatory obligations, reducing self-interested influences, supporting stakeholder's civic obligations, and developing trust and integrity in relevant operations and processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104154"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144313969","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}
Gisle Solbu, Sara Heidenreich, Marius Korsnes, Ruth Woods, Robert Næss
{"title":"The unsung heroes of Norway's sustainability transitions? Making visible the “invisible” energy citizenship of low-income households","authors":"Gisle Solbu, Sara Heidenreich, Marius Korsnes, Ruth Woods, Robert Næss","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104188","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104188","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the concept of energy citizenship through the lived experiences of low-income households in Norway, showing a significant disconnect between participatory ideals embedded in national climate and energy policies and the everyday realities of economically marginalised groups. While energy transitions are often framed as collective efforts requiring active citizen engagement, systemic barriers frequently prevent low-income groups from participating in these processes. Drawing on a qualitative study of 73 participants from low-income households, we examine how current policies implicitly define participation through technology adoption and green consumption, thereby rendering alternative sustainability practices invisible. Our findings show that low-income households contribute to sustainability through frugality, low-energy mobility, and sufficiency-oriented consumption, forms of “invisible” sustainability work that remain unrecognised in policy frameworks. Our findings call for a broader conceptualisation of energy citizenship that recognises these low-tech, sufficiency-oriented engagements as legitimate and transformative. We argue that inclusive energy transitions require not only redistributive policy measures but also a shift in how participation is defined and valued, moving beyond economic and technological models to embrace diverse, everyday forms of energy engagements.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104188"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144313970","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}
Cormac Lynch , Pete Barbrook-Johnson , Pablo Salas Bravo , Jean-Francois Mercure , Femke Nijsse , Jin Qin , Roberto Pasqualino
{"title":"Tackling transformational change in climate policy appraisal: experiences and perceptions of United Kingdom policy analysts","authors":"Cormac Lynch , Pete Barbrook-Johnson , Pablo Salas Bravo , Jean-Francois Mercure , Femke Nijsse , Jin Qin , Roberto Pasqualino","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104190","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104190","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Progress in implementing climate policy in the United Kingdom consistent with the country's target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 has been modest. This is despite the well-established physical risks of climate change, the UK's broadly accepted intention to act decisively, and the international recognition of the need for transformational climate action. Previous research suggests that the practical and theoretical limitations of existing decision-making frameworks and the accompanying economic tools may hinder transforming objectives into action. We explore how practitioners perceive the current assessment of transformational climate policies in the UK, drawing on interviews with government analysts from multiple departments. We identify various challenges including a status-quo bias and inadequate treatment of innovation and uncertainty that the recommended decision-making framework creates when applied to transformational climate policy proposals. Practitioners believed that new decision-making frameworks are needed to improve the assessment of transformational policies. These frameworks should support evidence-based decision-making in areas of deep uncertainty to enable government to avoid pessimism and status-quo biases. Frameworks should also find the balance between a detailed representation of transformational change and communicability to decision-makers to be effective. More economic modelling tools that view the economy as a dynamic system are also needed to provide decision-makers with more robust evidence on transformational change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104190"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144321348","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}
Leen Peeters, Laura Fernández López, Christos Trompoukis
{"title":"Addressing the gaps in understanding and assessing energy communities","authors":"Leen Peeters, Laura Fernández López, Christos Trompoukis","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104176","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104176","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since their explicit mention in the recast of the European Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2018/2001) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (Directive 2019/944), energy communities in Europe are gaining increased attention. Nevertheless, despite the increasing literature coverage, their true functioning and needs as well as more technical elements such as their meticulous mapping and an all-encompassing definition of their performance are aspects that still need to be studied, highlighting the complexity of assessing them comprehensively. In this paper, we discuss the various elements that are needed for a proper understanding of energy communities as ever increasingly multifaceted energy actors and try to touch upon various contextual parameters in order to end up with a better understanding of their complexity. In particular, we discuss the need to review the historical and socio-cultural context in which energy communities emerge, the assumed benefits (e.g. inclusion, energy democracy and energy justice) and whether they are justified in practice, as well as the need to thoroughly map them. We conclude with recommendations on how to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of energy communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104176"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144321347","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":"Is energy efficiency just? Examining social equity in residential demand response programs in Texas","authors":"Alexis Phelps, Kevin Lanza","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104173","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104173","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extreme heat and other weather-related hazards increase the risk of power outages and their associated health threat. Residential demand response (RDR) programs—incentive-based initiatives from energy providers that customers can opt into that allow providers to change their electricity usage in response to conditions—can improve electric grid resilience; however, little is known about the fairness of these programs across populations. In this qualitative study, we explored the barriers to participation in RDR programs by low-income households in the United States and how, if at all, program providers consider equity in the design of RDR programs and in what ways that can impact customer participation. Between January–May 2024, we conducted qualitative interviews with energy providers and regulators in Texas (<em>n</em> = 22) and subject matter experts in energy policy nationwide (<em>n</em> = 5). We identified six themes using NVivo: 1) equity is often overlooked in program design; 2) programs do not benefit everyone equally; 3) programs may be harmful for certain groups; 4) poor communication is a barrier to program participation; 5) mistrust in energy providers is a barrier to program participation; and 6) tenants face unique challenges in adopting programs. With climate change expected to increase extreme weather events and the threat to energy infrastructure and health, energy providers should consider partnering with energy-burdened households to design RDR programs that benefit both these households and ultimately all residents across energy provider service regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104173"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365348","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}