Toward just energy transitions in authoritarian regimes: indirect participation and adaptive governance

Abstract

Low-carbon energy transition is a response to the dual challenges of climate change and sustainable development. Recent years have seen the emergence of the discourse of just energy transitions, which position social justice at the centre of energy transitions. Authoritarian regimes, because of the established tradition of command-and-control policy making, are considered a critical arena for advancing a just transition globally. A case review of low-carbon energy transitions worldwide reveals an important and significant knowledge gap on justice issues in more authoritarian regimes. Two in-depth case studies in China show that, although social injustice seems to be inevitable for energy transitions in authoritarian regimes, adaptive transition governance mainly through indirect participation mechanisms offers a pathway toward just energy transitions. The study calls for more nuanced and longer-term perspectives of social injustices that emerge in the process of energy transitions in authoritarian regimes.

Keywords:

• energy transition
• social justice
• authoritarian regime
• adaptive governance
• China

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Search phrase: ABS (“socio-technical” OR “innovation system*” OR “sustainability transition*” OR “energy transition*”) AND ABS (“renewable energy” OR solar OR “wind power” OR biomass OR “hydro power”).

2 Search phrase: ABS (“socio-technical” OR “innovation system*” OR “sustainability transition*” OR “energy transition*”) AND ABS (“renewable energy” OR solar OR “wind power” OR biomass OR “hydro power”) AND ALL (*justice OR *equality OR poverty OR *distribution OR *recognition OR *participation OR discrimination).

3 If one project exhibited two different types of injustice, it is counted as two cases of injustice.

4 Solar Vision, Issue 61.

5 http://www.szaudit.gov.cn/zxbs/sjgzbg/jxsjgzbg/201512/P020151224839321671876.pdf.

6 https://data.weibo.com/report/reportDetail?id=433.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.