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Cities and Climate Change: Urban Sustainability and Global Environmental Governance (review)

There is a growing literature examining global energy governance that recognises the importance of actors, institutions, and processes in addressing diverse challenges including security, climate change and environmental sustainability. But there has been a more limited focus on the issue from the perspective of the poor. This omission is significant in view of the sheer scale of energy service deprivation – billions of people still lack access to modern energy services with consequences for economic development, health, education, environment, and gender equality. We briefly examine how elements of the issue of energy poverty are governed across different scales (global, regional, and local), and how effectively these energy governance systems are addressing the needs of the poor. Focusing primarily on sub-Saharan Africa – due to the pervasive energy governance challenges in the region – we consider the role for both governments and the international community in strengthening related tools, regulatory environments and institutions.

Energy governance and poverty

While the traditional form of electricity generation and supply is based on centralized structures with large-scale power plants, the objective of a strongly decentralized form of energy supply is increasingly becoming of importance. Sustainability-oriented energy transitions are relying on various sorts of renewable energies coupled with energy efficiency initiatives. In the current existing regulatory and market frameworks in Germany and elsewhere, important technical and institutional innovations for energy transitions were and are being developed, tested, and brought to application on regional and local levels. Regions, cities, and villages experimenting with socio-technical innovations and aiming to implement new concepts have to develop governance structures under high uncertainty. These governance structures mirror space-specific social, political, technological, and economic constellations. The present paper introduces an analytical approach for studying emergent forms of governance and uses four cases from Germany to apply the approach. Research is based on a comparative case study research design, using primarily expert interviews and document analysis as data sources. The cases demonstrate that sustainable energy transitions are driven forward by a variety of actors with different aims and interests, culminating in the development of space-specific technological mixes and situative governance structures. Sustainable energy transitions are not following a master plan or are coordinated on a national level. The upper political levels and external events pose severe constraints for the implementation of local transition initiatives. Future research should further aim to highlight and analyze the contentious character of local energy transitions.

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Situative governance and energy transitions in a spatial context: case studies from Germany

The impact of CHP (combined heat and power) planning restrictions on the efficiency of urban energy systems

Energy systems are in transformation towards increasingly renewable, decentralised, demand responsive and smart configurations. This has led to advocacy of the ‘prosumer’ phenomenon: characterised by actors who both consume and produce renewable energy. In parallel a range of prosumer business models are emerging, governed by a range of market, municipal and community actors. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis - centred on a case study of Bristol in the UK - this paper critically evaluates the normative dimensions of prosumer business models, modes of governance and understandings of value. We discuss how competing ‘value logics’ are present within imagined futures of prosumerism, and through a novel conceptual framework, how these modes of governance may lead to divergent material outcomes in a decentralised energy transition. We argue that a more explicit recognition of competing theories of value, agency and change is needed in future discussions of prosumerism.

Clémence Morlet

Papers

A comparative analysis of urban energy governance in four European cities