Climate justice and energy: applying international principles to UK residential energy policy

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on climate justice principles developed in the context of international negotiations between national governments to assess the distribution of carbon reduction roles between different actors involved in residential energy use within the UK. In so doing, it aims to provide a new understanding of equity aspects of current residential policy and to highlight opportunities for more effective and equitable policy. The paper uses three criteria: rights and corresponding duties; mitigation responsibilities and capabilities. It applies them systematically to assess the roles of five key actors involved in residential energy use in the UK. The assessment finds a suboptimal distribution of actors’ duties, responsibilities and capabilities and roles and discusses whether and how a more effective and fair allocation of outcomes, in terms of carbon reduction and fuel poverty, could be achieved. In particular, it raises questions about whether the right actors are being legally obliged or incentivised to deliver energy efficiency improvements, and suggests that particular actors – local authorities and community groups – are under-used and require greater government support with capability. The paper represents the first use of international climate justice frameworks to investigate residential energy policy within a country.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate justice
• equity
• residential energy
• energy policy
• UK

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Karen Lucas, University of Leeds for her support and insights and for Malene Clausen for her help with legal analysis. We are also grateful to the organisers of the ESRC Green Economy Seminar Series 2013–2014 at which a draft of the paper was first presented. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers whose careful and thorough comments helped to improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For example, Bangladesh’s per capita emissions are around 0.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide (compared to the US per capita emissions of 17 tonnes) and it is expected to suffer from rising sea levels and increased flooding linked to climate change.

2. Available from: www.ec.europa.eu/environment/aarhus/.

3. The Polluter Pay Principle requires that the costs of pollution are borne by those who cause it. The Ability to Pay Principle requires that the costs are borne by those most able to pay.

4. There are some differences in policy between the constituent countries of the UK (e.g. for policy distinctions between Scotland and the rest of the UK, see Evar and Lovell 2016). However, this level of detail is not included within this paper, as it does not affect the arguments begin made.

5. According to the new ‘low income high costs’ fuel poverty definition.

6. An important related concept is structural barriers, which relate to the different capabilities and socio-economic conditions that people face and hence their ability to participate in and benefit from policies and programmes in the first place (Bulkeley and Fuller 2010).

7. The UNFCCC 1992 Rio Declaration stipulated that greenhouse gases are to be stabilised at safe levels “on the basis of equity in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities”.

8. The right to health is frequently associated with entitlements to health care but it also extends to underlying determinants of health including adequate housing.

9. The UK has a dualist system meaning that international law or treaty obligations only become part of British law if central government passes an Act of Parliament to give effect to them. Nevertheless, if a country ratifies an international treaty but does not adapt its national law accordingly, it violates international law. In countries with a monist or mixed system, ratified international treaties can have automatic effect.

10. The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to ensure that by 2050, the net UK greenhouse gas emissions area are at least 80% lower than the 1990 base line. It requires the Government to set legally binding ‘carbon budgets over five year periods. The devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also covered by the UK climate change act and are implementing their own policies to achieve the targets.

11. We do not take or suggest taking into account historical responsibilities of different actors, as this would introduce a level of complexity which is likely to make this framework inoperable, and is of doubtful relevance to actors other than national governments.

12. The capability of specific actors, and their actual efficiency and effectiveness, can be evaluated and will depend on a range of context-specific internal and external influences.

13. This definition is adapted from Sen’s definition of capabilities which he developed for individuals (Sen 2001).

14. This may differ in systems of federal government, where power is allocated across different levels of government.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for its funding of the Climate Change and Social Justice Evidence Review which prompted the idea for this paper.