Conference Agenda

Developing energy systems that fully rely on renewable energy sources (RES) , such as wind and solar power, is seen as one of the main strategies to decarbonize our economy. Technologies to produce energy from RES have reached a high level of maturity and, for a wide range of locations in the world, the cost of producing energy from RES has dropped below the costs of burning fossil fuels to gain the same amount of energy. RES, however, also have drawbacks and impacts on the natural and social environment. While technological development can address many of the intrinsic shortcomings of RES (e.g. variability, low energy density per area unit, storability) a latent question is how to develop and implement such fully renewable energy systems in a just way that does not reproduce the failures and transgressions from the past related to (fossil) resources extraction and use. This panel discusses the development of renewable energy systems in various locations across the globe through the lenses of energy justice. Based on papers and the panelists’ contributions reporting on case studies conducted with a variety of (participatory) methods, we shed light on the relevance of regulation, institutions, association and governance forms to address issues related to procedural, distributional, recognition, restorative, and cosmopolitan justice.

In settler colonial contexts, decolonizing energy transitions through Indigenous led renewable energy can be one important element of a just transition. Community led renewable energy resources are a potential local economic development strategy as part of a just energy transition. Community led renewable energy production as independent power producers and grid operators is a strategy that may allow community empowerment across widespread heterogeneous contexts. Despite strong interest and some implementation of renewable energy across many settler colonial settings, there have been few opportunities for collective forms of leadership in renewable energy by communities in many of these settings [1].

This study focuses on one example of potential just policy design. First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, are embracing the implementation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) in law to advocate to create a regional scale “First Nations Power Authority” (FNPA) [2] to support the expansion of their opportunities as independent power producers of renewable energy and utility owners and operators [3]. This paper relies on policy, media and advocacy text analysis and incorporates findings from interviews with knowledge holders of First Nations in BC with experience in renewable energy development and the range of characterizing(s) of an FNPA institutional strategy. Lessons and learnings for other contexts will be highlighted.

References

[1] D. Cambou, G. Poelzer, Enhancing energy justice in the Arctic. An appraisal of the participation of Arctic indigenous peoples in the transition to renewable energy, in: D.C. Natcher, K. Timo (Eds.), Renew. Econ. Arct., Routledge, 2022: pp. 184–202.

[2] D. Lovekin, M. Whitestone, C. Kasteel, Finding a path forward: First Nation leadership in B.C.’s renewable energy future, Pembina Institute, 2021. https://www.pembina.org/pub/first-nation-leadership-british-columbias-renewable-energy-future.

[3] D. Cook, E. Fitzgerald, J. Sayers, K. Shaw, Survey Report: First Nations and Renewable Energy Development in British Columbia, .C. First Nations Clean Energy Working Group, University of Victoria, 2017. https://www.uvic.ca/research-services/assets/docs/rpkm/shaw-karena-first_nations_renewable_energy_bc.pdf?utm_medium=redirect&utm_source=/research/assets/docs/rpkm/shaw-karena-first_nations_renewable_energy_bc.pdf&utm_campaign=redirect-usage.

As variable as wind, as variable the interests connected to its use: Wind park operators, investors and landowners are usually keen on maximising profits; energy users, including those afflicted by energy poverty, request affordable energy; and citizens living in the vicinity wish to be involved in permitting procedures and earning a fair share in the project. Within this mix of interests, the role of the state is to create a level playing field with the ‘balancing of interests’ being an established legal instrument used by public authorities and courts.

Defining the expansion of wind energy as an ‘overriding public interest’ – as of now for 18 months – in the Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 effective as of January 2023 resets this playing field potentially to the disadvantage of both local stakeholders and energy community initiatives acting slower than professional wind park developers. This poses the hazard, that ‘green grabbing’, i.e., appropriation of land and natural resources suited for the exploitation of renewables by multinationals, will spread due to the increasing economic value of wind following the dramatic push in the expansion of wind energy. Due to the lack of defined property rights in wind, we observe the formation of de facto property rights: Where one wind park is built no other can be sited. It is landowners that decide whether or not third parties can exploit the wind blowing over their property. Wind park operators have even sued other operators in their vicinity for ‘wind-theft’. Against this background local energy communities appear as the weakest actor and their rights vis-à-vis wind, remain unclear.

This paper dissects the possibility to formulate property rights in wind, the possibility of declaring it as a common, and the legal mechanism behind the ‘balancing of interests’ concerning wind energy. Following the Tenets of Transitional Justice, the following questions need to be addressed: How do the current legal systems of selected EU Member States distribute the ills and benefits connected to the construction and operation of wind parks, using the mechanism of ‘balancing of interest’? (distributive justice); Do legislators and courts consider all conflicting interests in their ‘balancing of interests’, including those of typically underrepresented people? (justice as recognition); How can energy communities be empowered to actively shape the energy transition and what role does the state, e.g. by defining wind as a ‘common good’, play in this process? (procedural justice).

Participatory multi-criteria analysis (PMCA) methods are increasingly used to inform decision-makers. The methodology can theoretically be used to enhance energy justice for sustainability transitions due to their participatory elements. This study examines PMCA applications in emerging energy communities in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia investigating how justice considerations were addressed and what implications PMCA had on the procedural, distributional, recognition, restorative, and cosmopolitan justice. In the case studies, PMCAs were beneficial for considering procedural and recognition justice by involving stakeholders and different justice considerations in the evaluation of transition scenarios, but had limited influence on distributional, restorative, and cosmopolitan justice. We found that if PMCA is applied with the aim to achieve energy justice, a broader transition process must be set alongside clear strategies to onboard vulnerable groups, and to support local initiators to harness the benefits of participation into the actual implementation.

The transition to renewable energy systems intensifies the global competition for land. Brazil is one example, where wind energy development has created strong incentives for land privatization, while reproducing historical patterns of conflict over the use and control of public land. In the state of Bahia, a large share of the mapped wind corridors is located on undesignated or 'vacant' public state lands (port. terras devolutas), although vast tracts have been historically occupied and collectively used by traditional communities as communal lands. In our analysis, we focus on Fundo e Fecho de Pasto communities, which are traditional pastoral groups that practice extensive cattle and goat herding on communal, open-access lands in the Brazilian semiarid of the state of Bahia. In particular, we address the implications of new government policies that aim to secure and regularize land access for renewable technologies, such as the Normative Instruction 01/2020 for the wind power development. By integrating decolonial perspectives to the concept of energy justice, we analyze i) the impacts of wind power development from the perspective of the Fundo e Fecho Pasto communities; ii) how energy (in)justices are related to structural and institutional issues of coloniality; and iii) what new insights a decolonial perspective can provide for the concept of energy justice."