An integrated assessment framework for energy governance: toward a sustainable, equitable, and democratic energy transition
Date
2018
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Despite decades of efforts to promote greater socio-ecological sustainability, global society is failing to meet three important challenges in the context of energy and climate change: 1) the sustainability challenge posed by climate change; 2) the demand for equitable distribution concerning the benefits and burdens arising from climate change and high-risk energy technologies; and 3) the demand for democratic governance of energy systems. ☐ First, global society is failing to address the sustainability challenge posed by climate change. Currently, the resilience of the biosphere and the stability of human society are under an imminent threat of climate change. Largely caused by anthropocentric activities since pre-industrial times, the substantial release of carbon emissions has changed the chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere and, as a result, led to far-reaching consequences, such as global warming and sea level rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other researchers have found that global average temperature increased by 0.85℃ and global sea level rose by 19 centimeters over the last century. Under these circumstances, a deep decarbonization of global carbon emissions has been urged by many. Yet, current business-as-usual approaches to carbon reductions are failing to meet the required reduction of GHG emissions. Currently, the globally averaged carbon abundances and temperature are continuing to increase. ☐ Secondly, global society is failing to meet the demand for equitable distribution with respect to issues of benefits and burdens from climate change and high-risk energy technologies. An example of the problem is that many forms of energy are mined in rural areas, but it is urban areas that most of the energy is consumed. Often rural areas are exposed to the harms of toxic byproducts released from mining and power plants. In a similar vein, greater burdens from climate change are born by those who are least responsible. Global energy systems are the most responsible for global warming. Yet, the accountability for global carbon emissions and radioactive wastes generated by contemporary energy systems is not equitably shared among countries, regions, or people. Besides, the actions of present generations are imposing heavy, or unbearable, burdens on the next generations. ☐ Thirdly, global society is failing to meet the demand for democratic governance of energy systems. Contemporary energy institutions and policies are molded typically in a closed and hierarchical manner and shaped predominantly by experts and bureaucracies. On the other hand, voices of the public, especially parties disproportionately affected by policies, are not properly reflected in the decision-making process. The questions of democratic governance, such as who governs, are not generally addressed in modern democracies. Yet, critical inquiry of these issues is important as energy systems are configured by negotiations among competing interests, framings, and power relations. ☐ This dissertation proposes an integrated framework to address the challenge of deep decarbonization in an equitable and democratic manner. This dissertation argues that the current governance approaches to climate change are largely based on prevailing epistemological and institutional paradigms, like elitist technocracy and market liberalism, and are not capable of solving the challenge of deep decarbonization. Instead, an integrated framework, coined here as a Deep, Equitable, and Democratic Energy Transition (DEDET) Framework, needs to be developed to guide analysis, assessment, and development of energy transition alternatives. ☐ Why is an integrated assessment framework needed? There exist a diverse and growing number of studies offering alternative approaches crafted to respond to the challenges of deep decarbonization of energy-based emissions, equitable distribution of the risks and the burdens, and democratic governance of energy systems. Yet, most studies examine pieces of the challenges or sometimes present a partial analysis of policy options. For instance, IPCC (2014) analyzes the existing integrated models defining issues of sustainability and, to some extent, equity while not attending to issues of democratic governance. But, persistent challenges of sustainability and energy justice make the case for why we require new ways of thinking, inquiring, and policy-making other than the conventional approaches. ☐ There are several reasons for the persistence of the research problem. One reason is that there is a serious analytical challenge. For instance, sustainability and, to some extent, equity are treated as measurable variables while democracy is recognized to be a question of values, principles, and critical thinking that cannot be readily quantified. Consequently, the democratic character of deep decarbonization is frequently examined as a separate problem. Similarly, quantitative and qualitative research methods are often treated as separate approaches. While issues of deep decarbonization and, to some extent, equity can be addressed by quantitative studies, democratic governance requires qualitative study. But it is obvious that the definitions of sustainability and equity are, in some degree, political matters and need democratic discussion and action to be successfully implemented. Lastly, the design of an integrated assessment framework for energy systems is often recognized to be a daunting task partly due to the heterogeneity of spatial and temporal characters of the challenges arising from energy systems (Pietzcker, et al., 2017). In brief, modern challenges require integrated assessment and implementation. ☐ This dissertation, I hope, serves as a basic platform to build an integrated assessment tool. In other words, this dissertation does not aim to provide a definitive model encompassing all relevant issues and detailed guidance on assessment metrics, such as scoring methodologies. The focus of this dissertation is to argue for the need of a new approach that could address the interrelated challenges of deep decarbonization, equitable distribution, and democratic governance in an integrated manner and to embark on this initiative by offering the guiding principles and the assessment criteria. They are proposed as a potential basis for further investigation into the development of a multi-criteria framework. ☐ DEDET is proposed for two audiences: (1) interdisciplinary research communities seeking to research integrated approaches to address the interlinked challenge of the modern era; and (2) policy-makers and citizens seeking to shape energy transition policy in a manner that can address the three challenges. This dissertation targets interdisciplinary research as the first audience and is intended to add a more integrated research approach to the ongoing scholarly endeavor to develop sustainable, equitable, and democratic policy options. A second and equally important audience of this dissertation is the body of policy planners and policymakers, and citizens. The new framework presented in this dissertation can be used to provide them with conceptually sound and empirically assessed metrics to develop a new energy strategy that is sustainable, equitable and democratic. ☐ This dissertation analyzes large cities against DEDET to explore the potential of the framework. Large cities are considered important institutional hosts for this experimentation. Large cities arguably present the greatest challenge to the application of the DEDET framework. Large cities are important sites for policy innovation and democracy. From the early work of Lewis Mumford (1961) to the recent work of Bulkeley (2014), scholars have described the historical role of large cities in incubating new ideas, new policies, and new economies. The role and importance of large cities in tackling the interrelated challenges posed by modern energy systems are underscored by a growing body of research on the potential of polycentric governance approaches (Ostrom E., 2009; Taminiau, 2015; Byrne et al., 2017). Some have further argued that the distributed nature of sustainable energy transition makes cities more feasible and appropriate than centralized forms of nations (Rohracher & Spath, 2014). ☐ To test the potential of the DEDET framework in an urban context, this dissertation carries out a preliminary comparative analysis of London, Austin, and Freiburg and an in-depth case study of Seoul, South Korea. The three cities, often considered “leaders” in urban sustainability, are briefly reviewed against DEDET to show the applicability of the DEDET framework at several levels. The city of Seoul has experimented with a range of energy policies, notably One Less Nuclear Power Plant (OLNPP) initiative, to counter issues of climate change, energy justice, and energy democracy. The dissertation deploys both qualitative and quantitative assessment approaches to evaluate OLNPP against DEDET if Seoul is on track to achieve an energy transition that is sustainable, equitable, and democratic. ☐ The dissertation concludes with implications of this study for interdisciplinary research and for the development of integrated policy strategy. It is hoped that the research pursued here will encourage greater investigation of integrated frameworks and feasible strategies to tackle the core challenges of our time – sustainability, equitable distribution, and democratic governance.