Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
Browse
Search Results
Item Decarbonising cities: exploring regional energy justice implications(Taylor and Francis Group, 2025-05-06) Regier AJ; Berka AL; Hoicka CETo meet energy demand and achieve climate and energy decarbonisation targets, cities adopt a range of mechanisms to facilitate renewable electricity development from their surrounding regions. These mechanisms are likely to have implications for regional community co-benefits, social acceptance of renewable energy projects, and energy justice. This research used document analysis to identify the procurement mechanisms being used by cities to source renewable electricity from surrounding regions and the types of actors involved. The analysis focussed on 27 cities pursuing ambitious 100% renewable energy or carbon neutrality goals and whose plans indicate engagement with their surrounding regions. The results point to eight types of mechanisms used by cities to develop renewable energy in their surrounding region. Of the 56 occurrences identified, 55 involved public actors, 25 involved private actors, and 12 involved civic actors. The findings demonstrate that cities are overcoming their local energy constraints by seeking to develop renewable electricity in their surrounding regions utilising mechanisms that are dominated by the involvement of public and private actors, leaving civic actors underrepresented. Key policy highlights - Cities with ambitious renewable energy goals require large amounts of renewable energy to decarbonise. To achieve their decarbonisation goals, cities are adopting a range of mechanisms to facilitate renewable electricity development in the regions that surround them. - This study identifies eight types of mechanisms used by cities to drive renewable energy development within their surrounding region; power purchase agreements, project acquisition, city-led project development, incumbent-city collaborative project development, niche-city collaborative project development, centralised decision making, advocacy, and market stimulation. Of the 56 occurrences identified, most were dominated by public (n = 55/56) and private actors (n = 25/56), with little involvement of civic actors (n = 12/56) such as households, citizens and community organisations. - Limited citizen involvement in renewable energy development can hinder equitable benefits and social acceptance for regional communities. Civic participation in regional energy development is essential for a just and successful energy transition.Item “Stretch and transform” for energy justice: Indigenous advocacy for institutional transformative change of electricity in British Columbia, Canada(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-07) Hoicka CE; Regier A; Berka AL; Chitsaz S; Klym KTransformative energy justice addresses root causes and legacies of inequality, centers voices and world views of historically excluded communities in the problem definition, decision making and transition processes. This study offers insights from a unique case of meso-level collective action by First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, aimed at transformative electricity institutional change. We collate regulatory and advocacy text to characterise the range of proposed First Nation Power Authority models and their placement along a continuum of conformative to transformative energy justice. Interviews with knowledge holders from 14 First Nations offer insight into motivations behind transformative change and how it is shaped by historical injustice alongside practical community objectives around energy security, resilience, and community development. First Nations narratives of electricity transformation are aligned with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and with goals of self-determination and incorporate relational and regional approaches. These findings validate theoretical frameworks of transformational energy justice (Avelino et al., 2024; Elmallah et al., 2022). Much of the groundwork has been laid by the collective and the regulator, while new legislation has opened a window of opportunity to increase Indigenous participation and control in the electricity sector.Item The political economics of civic energy: A framework for comparative research(Elsevier B.V., 2025-01-02) Berka AL; Hoicka C; Sperling KDeep civic engagement in energy transitions has been limited and unique to specific political economic contexts. This study develops a generic policy mix enabling civic energy, drawing on a systematic overview of barriers and policies for civic energy by country and region from 1980 to 2023. We show that when policy mixes support widespread diffusion of civic energy, they are likely to be “thick”; meaning that they align a wide range of corporate legal, market access, energy subsidy, localised planning and facilitation, access to finance, and capacity building policies - extending well beyond the domain of energy policy. Literature suggests that “thick” policy mixes emerge in contexts where there are narratives and conscious strategies for participation, political opportunities and resources mobilised towards enabling participation, with high degrees of fiscal and legislative decentralisation and policy coordination. In contrast, contexts characterised by low levels of civic energy are posited as having “thin” policy mixes, with limited opportunity for inclusive visioning or experimentation in multi-stakeholder platforms, limited decentralisation and policy coordination, resulting in marginalisation of civic arenas, conflicting framings and lack of high-level strategies for civic participation. We identify countries characterised by thick and thin policy mixes based on literature and identify research needed to confirm the existence of exclusive and inclusive governance and policy settings in relation to key indicators for both inclusivity and speed of transitions, allowing for better articulation of the value of inclusive innovation as a practical and beneficial approach to meeting emission reduction goals.