Assessing energy justice in climate change policies: an empirical examination of China's energy transition

ABSTRACT

An energy transition programme based on the principles of energy justice is an important way to mitigate climate change; however, empirical studies on energy justice remain scarce. This study explores key aspects of energy transition policy implementation in China, using three dimensions of energy justice – distributional, recognition and procedural justice – to establish an analytical framework and help develop quantification methodologies. We focused on Luquan District, Shijiazhuang City (Hebei Province, China), to assess energy justice levels following the implementation of China’s ‘coal-to-gas’ energy transition policy in rural regions. The findings indicate that China’s rural energy policy has not delivered energy justice. Analysis revealed a markedly low procedural justice index, registering a mere 0.37 on a scale of 0–1, attributable to factors such as the lack of involvement of rural households and a lack of transparency in the design and formulation of policy, as well as a lack of access of rural households to policy-related information. Furthermore, insufficient acknowledgment of the needs of specific groups during the energy transition has negatively impacted recognition justice, resulting in a mid-level index value of 0.69. By comparison, this study shows reveals a reasonably high energy distributional justice index value of 0.89. These findings suggest the need for the government to enhance energy policy communication and responsiveness to its stakeholders, to acknowledge and fairly address the energy transition needs of rural consumers, and to implement targeted energy subsidies to augment distributional justice and preclude the waste of limited financial resources. The analytical framework and calculation methods presented here could contribute to quantifying energy justice levels and to informing energy transition policy both in China and more broadly elsewhere in the world.

Key policy insights

• Since 2013, implementation of China’s ‘coal-to-gas’ energy transition policy has engendered impacts on different dimensions of social justice that have influenced the realization of a just transition.

• A composite index system is established, encompassing distributional justice, recognition justice, and procedural justice, and quantitative exploration of energy justice is undertaken using a reverse deduction method.

• The greatest losses in justice, following implementation of China’s ‘coal-to-gas’ energy transition policy, are related to procedural justice, whereas recognition justice incurs moderate losses, and distributional justice experiences the lowest level of losses.

• Acknowledging the disparities among different groups, the ideal allocation of energy subsidies should be actualized through preliminary surveys, consultation and coordination, thereby preventing resource wastage.

• Recognizing individual rights and guaranteeing that the policy implementation process is open, transparent and participatory, could enhance energy justice and movement toward a just transition in the context of climate change policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy justice
• loss of justice
• rural energy transition
• coal-to-gas policy
• just transition

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all editors for their helpful comments and suggestions, which have helped improve the quality of this paper considerably.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The unit ‘mu’ is a Chinese measurement of unit area, where 1 mu is equivalent to 1/15th of a hectare, i.e., 3 mu translates to 0.2 ha.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant Nos 2022YFC3800705, 2018YFD1100102 and 2018YFC1509007) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 41801208, 41371529 and 41071353).