Energy, Sustainability and Society最新文献

{"title":"Operators’ good community engagement practices in energy projects: examples from the UK deep geothermal sector","authors":"Stacia Ryder,&nbsp;Melanie Rohse,&nbsp;Corinna Abesser","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00566-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00566-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>To be fair and inclusive, the transition to net zero must combine technological rollout with enabling communities to participate in energy decision making. Participation in the energy system can take many forms, and one area with great potential for improving fairness and inclusivity is the siting and implementation of renewable energy infrastructure. In the UK, one emerging renewable energy technology is geothermal energy. Our study aims to understand how the geothermal industry is approaching engagement in a country with limited geothermal development and research into engagement practices.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Using qualitative interviews conducted at three geothermal energy sites in the UK, we reveal that the operators interviewed appear to share an ethos characterised by honesty, trust and relationship-building. This ethos underpins good community engagement practices, such as approachability, accessibility, flexibility and two-way communication. We also observe that the operators are proactive in their engagement activities and responsive to queries from local communities.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Our results provide an initial analysis of engagement practices in the UK geothermal industry and offer a model of good community engagement practice around geothermal energy. Guided by an ethics of care towards communities, operators can routinely go beyond the minimal engagement requirements of planning. This enables them to address communities’ concerns, act on them, and maintain a dialogue between different stakeholders. There is a need for policy instruments to support this approach and establish higher engagement requirements for energy projects.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00566-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147607185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy transition? Yes, please! The framing of the energy transition on Instagram","authors":"Hannah Schmid-Petri,&nbsp;Alessa Zehe","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00568-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00568-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Various actors use Instagram to mobilize for their causes and communicate strategically in terms of their interests in the energy transition. Against this background, the aim of this study is to analyze how the energy transition is framed on Instagram, that is, which aspects are highlighted by specific actor groups. Furthermore, the researchers study the visual representations of the energy transition on Instagram, especially the text–image relationship.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>To answer the research questions, a quantitative content analysis of 907 Instagram posts dealing with the energy transition posted between January 5 and January 16, 2022, was conducted.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The results of this study show that communication about the energy transition on Instagram is carried out by a multitude of actor groups, especially economic actors. Communication about renewable energy on Instagram is generally optimistic and in support of the energy transition.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Overall, this study’s results indicate a lively interest in renewable energies on Instagram. This is also interesting regarding future communication activities, as the group of young users of Instagram can be encouraged to act by suggesting concrete action alternatives via which everyone can contribute to a fast and successful energy transition.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00568-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147338824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social trust and firms’ environmental innovation: the role of green commitment and customer geographic distance","authors":"Zhongju Liao,&nbsp;Xin Wei","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00569-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00569-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Informal institutions play an important role in corporate green transformation. Based on institutional theory, this study explored the impact of social trust on firms’ environmental innovation, as well as the mediating role of green commitments and the moderating role of customer geographic distance. Using a sample of 637 listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets in China from 2010 to 2021, we tested our hypothesis with a fixed-effects model.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Social trust had a positive impact on firms’ environmental innovation, and green commitments played a mediating role in the relationship between social trust and firms’ environmental innovation. Customers’ geographic distance played a positive moderating role in the impact of social trust on firms’ environmental innovation.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>This study provides a new perspective for understanding the driving factors of firms’ environmental innovation and expands the application of informal institutional theory.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00569-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changing the rules of the game to encourage a collaborative arrangement: the case of the Dutch regional energy strategy","authors":"Ivo Beenakker,&nbsp;Linda Carton,&nbsp;Hans van Kranenburg,&nbsp;Sietske Veenman,&nbsp;Martijn Gerritsen","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00567-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00567-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>In the Netherlands, a Regional Energy Strategy (RES) has been introduced to foster collaboration in allocating spatial and energy resources to meet climate goals. However, the market-based rules guiding the RES are often perceived as ineffective, unfair, and inefficient, resulting in limited participation and poor information sharing. Planning currently follows a ‘first come, first served’ principle. National legislative changes are being prepared to improve the RES. Yet, it remains unclear how these might improve the process. This study aims to explore, through a serious game, whether changes in rules can enhance the RES and, if so, how this improvement is achieved. Three scenarios are evaluated: (1) a business-as-usual situation with existing market rules; (2) a government-led scenario in which provinces play a stronger role by prioritizing spatial needs; and (3) a governance-led scenario in which energy planners are allowed to manage the grid more flexibly, giving grid planning a central role in steering spatial energy decisions.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The findings show that altering the rules of the game allowed more flexible grid management, based on a governance rationale and collaborative decision-making. The changes in rules produced spatial energy planning outcomes perceived as much more effective, efficient, and fair. These simulated rule changes created better conditions for spatial and energy planners to interact and make decisions that optimize both spatial and energy needs.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The simulation results suggest that the RES can achieve better outcomes when specific rules are adjusted, particularly in relation to energy network planning, with key actors taking the lead under a governance-oriented approach.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00567-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamic prospective life cycle assessment of transition paths for the Austrian steel industry","authors":"Ladislaus Lang-Quantzendorff,&nbsp;Martin Beermann","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00561-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00561-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>\u0000 <b>Background</b>\u0000 </h3><p>On its path to achieving climate neutrality targets, the emission-intensive crude steel industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation in terms of its technologies, energy carriers and reducing agents. Such a fundamentally changing system requires an environmental assessment from a forward-looking and time-differentiating perspective. This paper proposes a dynamic prospective life cycle assessment of the transition paths of the Austrian steel industry, including a detailed evaluation of the relevant energy supply options.</p><h3>\u0000 <b>Methods</b>\u0000 </h3><p>The assessment is based on <i>Prosperdyn</i>, a novel dynamic inventory calculator developed by the authors as an extension to the <i>Brightway</i> package. It combines dynamic foreground scenarios with prospective background data, taking into account the global transformation. Compared with other available tools in this field, pathway variations can be calculated in significantly less time, enabling them to be modified according to a normative emission target. The climate impacts of steel production are assessed alongside the emissions from the construction of the electricity and hydrogen infrastructure in a dynamic impact assessment. This includes additional radiative forcing as a complementary metric to the global warming potential.</p><h3>\u0000 <b>Results</b>\u0000 </h3><p><i>Prosperdyn</i> was employed to model the transition of crude steel production from blast furnaces to direct iron reduction using hydrogen by 2050. By iteratively modifying the transition path, the global warming potential will decline linearly from now until 2050, in line with the normative net-zero emission target. The final technology path meets the greenhouse gas budget and limits long-term radiative forcing.</p><h3>\u0000 <b>Conclusions</b>\u0000 </h3><p>The results demonstrate that achieving the targeted emission reductions requires a combination of ambitious measures. These include switching early to alternative reducing agents and increasing the share of secondary steel. In contrast, the source of renewable hydrogen has a minor impact on greenhouse gas emissions, but considerably affects the expected primary energy demand.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00561-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prospective dynamic average and marginal electricity emission factors for Germany until 2070: a methodological extension incorporating energy storage","authors":"Tobias Blanke,&nbsp;Joachim Göttsche,&nbsp;Bernd Döring,&nbsp;Jérôme Frisch,&nbsp;Christoph van Treeck","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of electricity consumption requires temporally resolved emission factors. Two established metrics are the Average Emission Factor (AEF), allocating total system impacts to consumed electricity, and the Marginal Emission Factor (MEF), reflecting the response of marginal generation. Previous studies in regard to Germany (e.g. Seckinger &amp; Radgen) provided hourly AEFs but focused mainly on the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and represented storage using constant annual discharge factors, neglecting round-trip losses and construction-related (upstream) emissions. This study addresses these limitations by proposing an extended electricity impact model that treats storage as an <i>impact storage</i> carrying time-varying charging impacts and allocates storage construction impacts to discharge cycles.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>The reference model by Seckinger et al. and the new approach are applied to a consistent hourly dataset for Germany covering 2020–2070. Hourly AEFs and MEFs are calculated for GWP, AP, EP<span>(_{fw})</span>, ODP, POCP, ADPF, and ADPE. The new model accounts for storage round-trip efficiencies and consumption-based accounting of imports, exports, and charging. It also allocates construction impacts to discharge events using a cycle-based approach linked to the state-of-charge distribution. The results are compared with those achieved by existing studies, and a sensitivity analysis evaluates key assumptions on storage construction and power plant characterization factors.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The new model yielded higher hourly emission factors than that from Seckinger &amp; Radgen, particularly during periods of high storage activity. Differences increased over time with rising storage deployment and are primarily driven by construction-related impacts, while hourly attribution introduces additional temporal variability. Across most impact categories, the refined storage representation leaded to higher average and marginal emission factors in storage-rich scenarios. In contrast to GWP and several other categories, ADPE increased over time, indicating a shift in environmental burdens toward non-fossil resource use as renewable generation and storage expand.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Energy storage representation strongly influences time-dependent electricity emission factors, especially in future systems with high storage penetration. Although differences between modeling approaches are small in early years, explicitly accounting for time-varying charging impacts and storage construction emissions improves accuracy and avoids systematic underestimation of future electricity footprints. Extending dynamic LCA beyond operational emissions is therefore essential to capture emerging trade-offs in highly renewable electricity systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fostering sustainable economic development and mitigating energy poverty through renewable energy communities","authors":"Alberto Biancardi,&nbsp;Idiano D’Adamo,&nbsp;Alessandro Donadel,&nbsp;Massimo Gastaldi,&nbsp;Madjid Tavana","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Energy poverty remains an urgent social and economic challenge, exacerbated by rising energy costs, climate change, and inequalities in access to renewable technologies. Renewable energy communities (RECs) offer a promising approach that combines local energy production, democratic participation, and shared benefits, with the potential to reduce costs and improve energy access for vulnerable households. However, their effectiveness depends on economic viability, equitable distribution of benefits, regulatory support, and active community involvement. This study is relevant in that it assesses the viability, critical success factors, and benefit-sharing mechanisms of a photovoltaic REC, providing insights into how such models can foster sustainable, inclusive, and socially cohesive energy transitions.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The analysis assesses the profitability of an 80 kW photovoltaic system for a REC located in Northern Italy. The project’s profitability ranges from 2556 to 5791 €/kW for self-consumption levels of 30% to 70%. Even without incentives, the investment remains economically sustainable, with profits ranging from 1693 to 3777 €/kW. Profitability is strongly influenced by self-consumption, but the incentive also makes the project much more attractive to prosumers. Sensitivity, scenario, and risk analyses confirm the project’s robustness with respect to other variables, including energy purchase and sale prices, investment costs, and the opportunity cost of capital. A new methodology for distributing benefits across stakeholder categories (producers, consumers, households in energy poverty, territorial redevelopment, and the State) is proposed, also including ESCOs as facilitators and catalysts for RECs.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>RECs can be a tool for energy transition, capable of generating economic and social benefits even without government incentives in a mature photovoltaic market. However, incentives significantly enhance the project’s economic viability and promote broader participation in the creation of these communities. From a policy perspective, this suggests a shift from direct subsidies to creating conditions conducive to community development, through programs that protect vulnerable families and aim to balance the needs of all stakeholders. From a managerial point of view, profitability depends above all on optimising self-consumption, while the equitable distribution of benefits among stakeholders strengthens legitimacy, fairness, and social cohesion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The German Energiewende and the role of the EU: are misfits an Achilles heel of the energy transition in Germany?","authors":"Per Ove Eikeland,&nbsp;Stefan Wurster,&nbsp;Jörg Radtke,&nbsp;Christina Köhler-Tschirschnitz","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The aim of the energy policy proclaimed by all German federal governments since the Fukushima incident of 2011 is a fundamental transformation of the national energy system towards renewable (excluding nuclear) energies. However, since German energy policy is embedded into a European multilevel governance system, not only national but also European forces shape the German <i>Energiewende</i>.</p><h3>Main text</h3><p>By analysing the complex political and legal interlinkages, this study identifies fits and misfits between national and European policy initiatives in functionally related energy fields. First, it finds broad coherence between the EU and German energy transition objectives. Objectives deviate in one area, the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany which is not paralleled at the EU level. Secondly, it observes more extensive misfits around the preferred policy instruments that have pressured Germany to change. This concerns instruments tied to the support of renewable energy and the operation of electricity networks in support of the transition. Here, the German policy approach saw a misfit with internal energy market regulations in the EU.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Whereas European adaptation pressure caused a shift in the German renewable energy support policy, resulting in a slowdown in the expansion of renewable energies, EU pressure to end coal subsidies helped accelerate the phase-out of coal in Germany.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing strategies and success of policy entrepreneurs in EU energy and climate policy processes","authors":"Fredrik von Malmborg","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The clean energy transition required for the decarbonisation of societies to meet climate, energy and sustainability goals make policymakers targets for broad business and non-business advocacy, ensuring that their often-conflicting interests are protected or considered in public policies. The concept of policy entrepreneurs foregrounds the role of agency in understanding such advocacy acts. This paper aims to further the understanding of policy entrepreneurship by comparing strategies used by policy entrepreneurs from various social spheres, who advocate policy change or the status quo, in four longitudinal cases related to EU energy and climate policy from 2011 to 2023.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Policy entrepreneurship was mainly of a cultural-institutional nature, aiming at altering or diffusing people’s perceptions, beliefs, norms and cognitive frameworks, worldviews, or institutional logics. However, the European Commission’s (EC) actions also included structural entrepreneurship, aiming at overcoming structural barriers to enhance governance influence by altering the distribution of formal authority and factual and scientific information. The motives of policy entrepreneurs in the four cases differ, but strategies do not differ significantly between actors from the public, private and civic spheres of society. However, the results indicate that civil society policy entrepreneurs focus on building broader coalitions, than do public and private sector entrepreneurs. There is no indication that policy entrepreneurs from a certain sector are more successful than others in setting the agenda, changing the perceptions of policy actors, or influencing actual policy change.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>It is concluded that policy entrepreneurs advocating policy change are more active and use more elaborate strategies than policy entrepreneurs advocating the status quo. They are also more successful in influencing policy outcomes. The EC was the only policy entrepreneur using structural entrepreneurship, but other policy entrepreneurs were also found to act in non-transparent ways, hiding who takes decisions. The EC acts to expand its reach into areas where the EU holds no or limited legal competence according to the Treaty of the EU. In all, this comes with democratic deficits related to accountability and legitimacy and raises concerns about technocratisation of EU policy processes. These tendencies should be combated to reinstate and reinforce the position and powers of both national and European legislators in formally making important decisions that impact the lives of European citizens and sustainability in the EU.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The obligation to long-term governance: a philosophical analysis","authors":"Eike Düvel,&nbsp;Michael W. Schmidt","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Many of the problems currently facing our societies are long-term. Long-term problems are complex, often large-scale, and may require considerable planning and resources to avert undesirable outcomes in the (far) future. Consider issues such as climate change, nuclear waste disposal, and the sustainable management of ecosystems. The ability of a society to adequately address the most relevant problems depends on appropriate long-term governance, i.e., strategic, consistent, and coherent governance over an extended period of time.</p><h3>Main text</h3><p>Serious obstacles are inherent in long-term governance. These include short election cycles, intergenerational trade-offs, and the uncertainties involved in long-term decision-making. Liberal democracies appear to encounter difficulties in providing adequate responses to pertinent long-term issues, such as climate change, due to the institutions’ current design, which primarily focuses on safeguarding the interests of the present generation.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>This paper introduces long-term governance as a distinct philosophical topic by defining it in relation to a novel perspective on long-term challenges. The paper defends an obligation to engage in long-term governance based on the basic rights of those who do not yet vote. This includes, in particular, an obligation to engage in research into long-term governance institutions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}