Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"Glocalisation of hydrogen sociotechnical imaginaries in Poland - local technocratic scenarios to align with global transitions","authors":"Joanna Grudowska ,&nbsp;Katarzyna Iwińska","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104607","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104607","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although Poland is the third-largest hydrogen producer in the European Union, it struggles to limit the carbon emissions in the process of its production and transform into low-carbon (green) hydrogen. Our investigation examines the dominant sociotechnical imaginaries of hydrogen technologies implementation in Poland and integrates them with the framework of glocalisation to reveal how hydrogen STIs operate outside core green hydrogen hubs. Through semi-structured expert interviews and the Delphi method, this study analyses how coexisting sociotechnical imaginaries shape Poland's emerging hydrogen green economy. The Delphi method is utilised to frame experts' perspectives on opportunities, risks, and implementation requirements as well as expected probabilities of the future developments. The research reveals three primary coexisting imaginaries that guide Poland's hydrogen development trajectory. Firstly, the technonationalist scenario prioritizes the development of domestic hydrogen technologies. Secondly, the State/Industry-Led scenario positions hydrogen as a transformative force for comprehensive economic modernisation while simultaneously strengthening Poland's technological competencies and thirdly, a mixed Bottom-Up and Top-Down perspective encompasses two governance approaches, balancing large-scale national initiatives with localised “hydrogen valleys” projects. The three scenarios explain the divergence and incoherence in implementing new technologies and might help diagnose conflicting priorities at the policy and governance levels. Poland's hydrogen sociotechnical imaginaries are fundamentally technocratic and technonationalist, framing hydrogen as a direct fuel substitute within existing centralised infrastructures and privileging institutional success metrics over social justice or grassroots participation. The global-local hydrogen energy transition is discussed in a peripheral context of Poland in the world and the technocratic–reformist hopes for technological-sovereignty in Europe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104607"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147401633","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":"Beyond ownership structures: Oil company climate discourses in authoritarian Russia and Kazakhstan","authors":"Ellie Martus ,&nbsp;Marianna Poberezhskaya ,&nbsp;Marat Karatayev ,&nbsp;Elena Novikova","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104582","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104582","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Oil companies play a central role in global climate politics, yet existing research provides a limited understanding of how corporate climate strategies vary across ownership structures and political systems. This article addresses this gap though a comparative study of private and state-owned oil companies in Russia and Kazakhstan. Both are authoritarian states, major global oil producers, significant greenhouse gas emitters, and are highly dependent on fossil fuel exports. Using a most-similar system design, the analysis draws on an extensive range of publicly available corporate documents in English, Russian and Kazakh, to examine how oil companies (private and state-owned) have responded to climate change, and how these discourses interact with national climate agendas. Comparing discursive framings on climate change across countries and ownership types, the findings show that authoritarian state priorities strongly shape climate discourses, overshadowing differences generated by both private and state-owned companies. Unlike their Western counterparts that are driven primarily by financial and reputational interests, in Russia and Kazakhstan, both private and state-owned companies largely align their climate narratives with national political goals, limiting the scope for independent or market-driven climate positioning. Broadly, this article advances understanding of how political context shapes corporate climate behaviour. It demonstrates that in authoritarian fossil fuel states, national politics takes centre stage in structuring corporate engagement with climate change, with important implications for global climate governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104582"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175079","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":"State versus private ownership: Local government preferences in wind power permitting in China","authors":"Zhipeng Ye ,&nbsp;Mengye Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104597","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104597","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have played a significant role in China's wind power development, dominating the majority of investment in the sector. Conventional wisdom suggests that SOEs receive preferential treatment from the government, crowding out private investment and hinder fair competition and economic efficiency. However, our study finds that the picture is more complicated. We focused on wind power permitting decisions made by local governments from 2011 to 2018 — a period historically significant for addressing our research questions —and employed a qualitative and quantitative mixed-methods approach. Our analysis highlights how local governments exercise discretion in ownership selection under China's state capitalism. This study reveals that local governments' preferences for SOEs or private investors are shaped by two empirically grounded factors: corruption risks and fiscal pressures. Specifically, under the institutional configuration of this period, corruption risks increase the likelihood that local governments select SOEs when the approval of private developers is more likely to trigger corruption allegations, while fiscal pressures increase the likelihood of choosing private investors as a means of alleviating fiscal constraints. These findings contribute to the political economy of renewable energy development by showing how ownership preferences are contingent rather than fixed, and by elucidating the role of local governments in mediating state–market relations through permitting decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104597"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174630","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":"An inevitable future? The debate over mining for critical raw materials on Indigenous Sámi lands—A critical discourse analysis of Swedish news media","authors":"Leslie Spitz-Edson","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104574","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104574","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Some global north countries, including Sweden, are pursuing plans to onshore critical raw material (CRM) mining for the energy transition. However, in northern Sweden, where CRM deposits are found, their extraction threatens Indigenous Sámi land rights and livelihoods including reindeer husbandry. Under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Sweden is bound to protect Sámi land and livelihoods. Swedish society debates this conflict in part through the news media.</div><div>Globally, extraction of minerals often occurs on or near Indigenous territories. Focusing on Indigenous people in Sweden, this study enriches understanding of issues relating to Indigenous peoples in the global north.</div><div>This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine Swedish newspaper reporting on specific CRM mining projects from 2013 to 2023. Informed by scholarship on representations of Indigenous peoples, extractive industry, and the energy transition, this study examines how journalists represent the Sámi people in relation to the mining industry, the state and society, and the energy transition, and considers how these representations might relate to public debate about climate solutions.</div><div>The analysis finds that the Sámi people are often depicted as opposed to the interests of Swedish society, including the extraction of CRMs deemed to be national and geopolitical necessities. Embedded discourses, including the assumption that the Sámi have a responsibility to allow extractive development and the narrative that Sámi lands are empty and underused, support the establishment of mines. Finally, an ambivalence regarding Sámi cultural distinctiveness may endanger their rights claims and impoverish Swedish society's deliberation of possible futures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104574"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174638","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":"Deliberate destabilization on trial: Fair-process lessons from the Czech Coal Commission","authors":"Filip Černoch,&nbsp;Michaela Hronová,&nbsp;Lukáš Lehotský","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Expert commissions have become pivotal in coal-phase-out governance, yet their capacity to unsettle incumbent coal regimes remains contested: do they genuinely shift entrenched power relations or merely create an illusion of participatory legitimacy? Drawing on energy-justice and transition studies, this article approaches the issue from the perspective of procedural justice and assumes this tenet of justice is crucial in shaping the outcome of an institutionally induced destabilization. We develop a four-part framework of procedural justice – member selection, stakeholder balance, deliberative conditions, and public transparency – and apply this framework to the Czech Coal Commission (2019–2021), which was established as an expert body tasked with establishing the coal phase-out schedule. Our results show that the Czech Coal Commission was blatantly procedurally unjust. Discretionary appointments, industry-leaning membership, and compressed timelines that circumscribed substantive deliberation ultimately enabled coal incumbents to retain power over the outcome. This case underscores that rigorous procedural design is a necessary precondition for commissions to function as effective agents of destabilization within fossil-fuel regimes, and that design choices must be addressed if similar bodies are to support credible and socially legitimate coal exits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104573"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175093","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":"Energy poverty and unpaid work: Evidence from rural China","authors":"Yiyi Zhao ,&nbsp;Sonia Akter ,&nbsp;Jane Golley","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104596","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104596","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study is the first to investigate the impact of energy poverty on unpaid labour in rural China, utilising a five-year panel dataset spanning from 2014 to 2022. The analysis demonstrates that energy poverty contributes an additional 4.3 to 6.1 min of daily household work for rural adults in China before the COVID-19 pandemic. Households affected by energy poverty bear a greater burden of unpaid household work compared to energy-affluent households, particularly affecting women in households that rely heavily on self-produced agricultural goods for subsistence and mothers with preschool-aged children. Factors such as a lack of household appliances, limited access to agricultural machinery and poor health status are strongly linked to increased household work burdens for these households. Additional analysis indicates that, following COVID-19 disruptions in 2022, rural individuals facing energy constraints experienced a greater increase in daily household work compared to previous years.</div><div>These findings highlight disparities in unpaid labour across agricultural and non-agricultural households, between households using solid versus clean cooking fuels, and by gender. The study underscores the intersection of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (gender equality and women's empowerment) and 7 (affordable and clean energy) and emphasises the critical need to address energy poverty in agriculture-reliant rural areas to improve women's welfare by reducing unpaid work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104596"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147401660","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 critical meta-survey of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of hydrogen energy systems","authors":"Benjamin K. Sovacool ,&nbsp;Steve Griffiths ,&nbsp;Kyle Herman ,&nbsp;Marfuga Iskandarova","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104461","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104461","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hydrogen energy systems are central to decarbonization strategies, yet their full climatic footprint remains contested. Lifecycle assessments reveal significant variability influenced by feedstock choices, energy inputs, and production processes. This paper conducts a meta-survey to examine assumptions behind varying estimations and identify improvement areas. We analyzed 653 academic studies, applying rigorous exclusion criteria to extract 906 estimations across ten lifecycle stages from 109 peer-reviewed studies covering 90 % of global hydrogen production over 2000–2024. We calculated emissions intensities based on grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO₂e/kWh) and kilograms per kilogram of hydrogen produced (kgCO₂e/kgH₂), disaggregating estimates by hydrogen “colors” (turquoise, blue, green, etc.) based on different energy inputs. Results indicate median carbon footprints for production alone of 164.3 gCO₂e/kWh or 5.5 kgCO₂e/kgH₂. Full lifecycle accounting—including upstream sourcing, conversion, storage, distribution, end-use, and decommissioning—increases total median footprints to 435.4 gCO₂e/kWh or 15.2 kgCO₂e/kgH₂. Mean values are significantly higher (1038.4 gCO₂e/kWh and 34.5 kgCO₂e/kgH₂), highlighting extreme outliers' impact. Key variability sources include process type, energy inputs, sectoral application, geographic location, leakage rates, and system capacity. We identify gaps in lifecycle methodologies, particularly system boundary definitions, reporting standards, and end-of-life infrastructure treatment. The findings challenge generic assumptions about hydrogen's climate benefits and emphasize the need for granular, pathway-specific analysis in policy, investment, and modeling decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104461"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702952","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":"Critical mapping of the energy-gender nexus: From “sex disaggregation” to “doing gender equality”","authors":"Harshavardhan Jatkar ,&nbsp;Sarah Bradshaw ,&nbsp;Karla Cedano ,&nbsp;Rebeca Cruz ,&nbsp;Harry Kennard ,&nbsp;Manuel Martinez ,&nbsp;Karla Ricalde ,&nbsp;Harriet Thomson ,&nbsp;Julia Tomei ,&nbsp;Ian Hamilton","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing energy research is frequently criticised for its lack of gender sensitivity and for reproducing masculine biases. While literature exploring energy and gender is growing, there remains a significant gap in understanding how these fields precisely interact. Exploring this intersection is important to advance the agenda for gender equality in energy research, policy and practice. This article presents a systematic review of papers published on the topic from 1991 to 2021, employing a novel two-stage interdisciplinary approach: a quantitative bibliometric mapping of literature, concepts, and methods, followed by a qualitative analysis of selected studies through a critical gender lens.</div><div>The results reveal that while publications are increasing, the field is dominated by quantitative methods and often treats gender as synonymous with biological sex, failing to engage with critical gender theories. Importantly, the review highlights that energy–gender research is often conducted by scholars with limited engagement with gender theory, leading to research that frequently reinforces, rather than challenges, gender stereotypes. A small number of studies adopting feminist or queer perspectives illustrate how alternative theories of gender can enrich energy research. Considering these limitations, we argue for the advancement of a transformative energy agenda by shifting from analyzing sex-disaggregated data to “doing gender equality”. We conclude with eight procedural and thematic recommendations, including the necessity of interdisciplinary teams that include gender scholars, the adoption of qualitative methods to capture lived experiences, and a commitment to challenging gender stereotypes and incorporating alternative gender theories within energy research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104615"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147401699","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":"Responsibilized and powerless? Unpacking the individualization of climate mitigation","authors":"Gulnaz Anjum ,&nbsp;Mudassar Aziz","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104585","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104585","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over recent decades, climate mitigation discourse in Western democracies has increasingly emphasized individual lifestyle choices alongside continued structural reforms. This trend is commonly described as the “individualization of responsibility.” This perspective paper offers a critical interdisciplinary synthesis examining how this discursive shift operates, whom it serves, and what it obscures. We critically examine the rise of individual-focused climate strategies, such as carbon footprint tracking, behavioral nudges, and voluntary consumption shifts, and synthesize evidence on their documented efficacy. Drawing from climate psychology, political science, sociology, and environmental justice perspectives, we analyze how neoliberal governance has recast citizens as climate-conscious consumers while diffusing accountability from state and corporate actors. We argue that “responsibilization” can activate certain forms of individual agency while constraining others. When detached from structural transformation, it risks reinforcing social inequalities and weakening collective political engagement. The article advances an integrated, justice-informed conceptual framework, the Responsibility-Power-Justice (RPJ) nexus, that repositions individual action within systems of structural accountability. We emphasize that equitable and effective climate action requires coupling behavioral insights with ambitious, justice-oriented policy reform. Aligning responsibility with power and capacity is essential to avoid responsibilization without empowerment and to achieve the scale of transformation the climate crisis demands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104585"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174682","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":"Corrigendum to “Green façades, colonial shades? A critical inquiry into the global justice implications of the European Union's hydrogen and carbon management strategies”, [Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 129 (2025) 104378]","authors":"Alberto Boretti","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2026.104570","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 104570"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174629","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}