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Germany has sought to accomplish an energy transition by progressively shifting from dependence on fossil fuel sources to reliance on various forms of renewable energy sources. This transition is facilitated through the implementation of a range of legislative measures that align with the goals of the energy transition program. Furthermore, Germany leads in European scientific research, prioritizing the involvement of the private sector. These initiatives have resulted in positive outcomes in the German energy market, prompting the development of infrastructure for renewable energy sources. Consequently, their contribution to Germany’s energy supply has seen a gradual rise.

The development of district heating (DH) is a major objective of energy transition policies in France, since heating networks make it possible to massively use renewable energies. It is therefore important to understand the approach of energy transition adopted by local stakeholders. Interviews with stakeholders of five DH systems using more than 80% of renewable energies, lead to several observations. First of all, economic, environmental and social benefits of these networks are clearly identified by local actors. These benefits help to understand why those energies were chosen regarding local energies available, which can be sources of territorial value. District heating networks can be considered as collective projects, based on a shared vision of energy transition in the cities. Those projects imply very strong ambitions, driven by district heating stakeholders, who share a vision of future sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy colonialism is an essential, yet scarcely theorized concept for understanding how past, present and future energy systems are shaped by colonial or neocolonial power dynamics, imaginaries, discourses, and practices. These perspectives are important for contemporary debates on energy transition processes, namely with regard to green finance flows, new green geopolitics, and energy governance. Energy colonialism becomes manifest as power over energy transition processes, as an epistemic force with regard to knowledge orders and knowledge transfer, but also as an intervention on an individual scale, affecting daily life and human-nature relations. Colonial continuities are pervading contemporary energy debates, for instance in the ‘run-up’ for green hydrogen produced the Global South to sustain economic growth in the Global North, in colonial imaginaries of terra nullius conceptions reproduced in energy partnerships, and not least in financial dependencies that stabilize the political economy of clean energy. Reconstructing how different understandings of energy colonialism entered political and academic debate, this article provides an account of its history of ideas and demonstrates how a lack of theoretical underpinning limits analytical rigor and activist work. To close this gap, I engage with the concept of coloniality in use, and suggest a more nuanced understanding of energy colonialism. A nine-field matrix demonstrates how energy colonialism becomes manifest on different levels of energy transitions and how the concept may serve as a multidimensional research strategy for critical social science research on energy transitions and modes of energy governance, energy infrastructures, and energy subjectivities.

Climate coloniality manifests in the violent appropriation of territories in the Global South, including the extraction of strategic minerals such as copper and molybdenum to service energy transition and green growth for the major world powers. Peasant communities in the Intag river valley in Ecuador have been resisting large-scale mining for decades and, thus, have built up a local solidarity economy as a livelihood alternative. This includes communitarian hydropower projects at different scales, which are designed not only to provide families with extra income or jobs but also to build virtuous circles that avoid deforestation, protect biodiversity, and strengthen relations in all their dimensions: within communities, with nature, and with organized actors in the Global North who recognize and wish to cancel their climate debt.

The trajectory taken by the Provence Coalfield (or Bassin Minier de Provence), located between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, is explained by its long mining history, disrupted by the closure of the mine in 2003. We approach this space from a global perspective, considering the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the socio-ecosystem. The conclusion puts forward scenarios for the evolution of the territory and the perspectives for research, underlining the growing role of the energy transition, especially in the context of the closure of the coal-fired power plant.

The transition to green energy requires an all-hands-on-deck approach because of the effects of climate change on all. However, the nature and type of commitment or responsibilities required towards the transition are to be differentiated due to ‘countries’ different socioeconomic challenges and starting positions. This is the underpinning understanding of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s energy transition strategy under the framework of the Paris Agreement (PA). Whether PA’s ‘differentiation’ representation and strategies, contributes to a ‘just’ energy transition is the goal of this paper. Arguably, embedded in the current UNFCCC energy transition strategy is the concept of a ‘just’ transition which recognises the importance of ‘a fair and equitable energy transition process’ (D Mccauley et al 2018:2). However, this paper, using the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), demonstrates how PA’s differentiation representations and soft approaches do not completely eliminate the problem of unjust energy transition (ET), or capture the multifaceted challenges of developing African contexts’ capacity towards the transition. The paper argues that the current international law ET initiative and strategy, in a bid to exact more diversity, blurs the understanding of responsibility and accountability, when it comes to finances and investments towards the current transition as well as countries' economic capacities. Based on this background, the paper uses the Nigerian social context to exemplify what a just transition would mean for a developing context, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper is divided into three sections. The first section is the introduction, and the second, unpacks the ET. The third section addresses the legal and policy framework of the ET - PA 2015, and finally problematises ET’s strategy using the TWAIL lens. It concludes by offering recommendations for a ‘just’ transition that balances the socioeconomic development of developing contexts.

The objective of this paper is to review the electrification modes associated with the Great Algerian South Networks (GSN). The study focuses on the conceptualization of the GSN through the dimensioning of mini-grids. Given the remoteness and difficulties of fuel supply, a series of reforms have been undertaken to promote the energy transition and ensure the development of these regions through the realization of hybrid systems in order to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel sources by ensuring energy savings.

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Latin America has long been a key site of resource extraction, acting as a sacrifice zone for the Global North's fossil fuel needs. Now, the region is pushing for an "energy transition" by opening its own electric grid to renewable sources. Using a case study from La Guajira, in Northeastern Colombia, we argue that energy corporations are appropriating and deploying the concept of energy transitions to fashion themselves as climate conscious, post-extractive, and environmentally caring actors. Based on ethnographic evidence from coal mining and wind energy companies, we argue that the corporate co-optation of the energy transition agenda plays out in public narratives and representations, environmental projects, and community relations. Drawing on insights from the political ecology of energy transitions and low-carbon infrastructures, we contend that corporate transition agendas are more than smoke and mirrors; they are tangible and consequential processes that perpetuate environmental conflicts, sustain forms of "green" accumulation, and foreclose the possibility of a just transition. In unraveling the competing yet entangled agendas of coal and wind companies, this article renders visible the continuities between fossil fuels and renewable energy in Latin America and beyond.

The current environmental, political, economic, and social context makes the management of energy resources, electricity in particular, a central issue. European energy policies require the deployment of smart grids to reduce energy consumption. From this strategy emerge smart-grid interfaces that allow households to consult their electricity consumption in near real-time. The underlying assumption is that information leads to action. However, this link is not automatic, and raises the question of the appropriation of these technologies. This paper proposes to study the process of appropriating smart-grid interfaces through the prism of the instrumental approach. A longitudinal study was conducted over 3 years (2016-2018) as part of the SOLENN experimental smart-grid, on a sample of 36 households. The aim was to answer the following questions: are smart-grid interfaces used? If so, how, for what purposes, and with what effect on electricity consumption? The results reveal the obstacles to appropriation, what encourages this process and how it has been achieved. The analysis also shows that, even if the use of interfaces leads to new knowledge, electricity consumption information alone is not sufficient to influence individual energy-saving behaviours. The findings suggest that we need a broader design of the technologies, and energy policies to a greater, for the instrumental genesis and the development of the individuals’ power to act in the energy transition field.

The current environmental, political, economic, and social context makes the management of energy resources, electricity in particular, a central issue. European energy policies require the deployment of smart grids to reduce energy consumption. From this strategy emerge smart-grid interfaces that allow households to consult their electricity consumption in near real-time. The underlying assumption is that information leads to action. However, this link is not automatic, and raises the question of the appropriation of these technologies. This paper proposes to study the process of appropriating smart-grid interfaces through the prism of the instrumental approach. A longitudinal study was conducted over 3 years (2016-2018) as part of the SOLENN experimental smart-grid, on a sample of 36 households. The aim was to answer the following questions: are smart-grid interfaces used? If so, how, for what purposes, and with what effect on electricity consumption? The results reveal the obstacles to appropriation, what encourages this process and how it has been achieved. The analysis also shows that, even if the use of interfaces leads to new knowledge, electricity consumption information alone is not sufficient to influence individual energy-saving behaviours. The findings suggest that we need a broader design of the technologies, and energy policies to a greater, for the instrumental genesis and the development of the individuals' power to act in the energy transition field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition is a complex concept that requires progressively addressing various technical, environmental, social, and political issues. Green hydrogen is recognized as a clean fuel to support the energy transition worldwide. This study presents a modeling framework for green hydrogen deployment strategies in the transport and fertilizer sectors on a long-term basis. The mathematical model includes decision variables to account for the amount of hydrogen produced from different energy sources and the importation of fossil-based commodities. Additionally, it incorporates demand-supply and production capacity restrictions in 5-year intervals from the year 2020 to 2050. The case study focuses on the Ecuadorian context, and two deployment strategies are proposed: (i) utilizing surplus renewable energy and (ii) developing local PV capacity. Both strategies positively contributed to adopting more sustainable alternatives; however, Strategy II exhibited superior performance in terms of costs and GHG emissions. Thus, this work provides a framework for designing energy transition strategies and their evaluation to achieve specific renewable and green hydrogen adoption targets over time.

In the context of providing sustainable energy, it is necessary to expand access to reliable and affordable sources of energy supply. In other hand to restore confidence in the renewable energy sector, and ensure the sustainability of renewable energy projects in the future, it is very important to map the renewable energy potential. PLN, as the official institution appointed by the government to manage electricity in Indonesia, has not been able to meet the needs of the people of Bantul Regency for electricity as a whole. This study aims to provide some insights of identify various types and potential of renewable energy in Bantul Regency as an alternative to electricity generation. The research methodology was carried out quantitatively using primary data, obtained by field survey. Through the process of identification and gathering pertinent data, an evaluation is conducted to estimate the potential of electrical energy derived from a variety of renewable energy sources.

This paper studies energy transition from the perspective of actors, through an analysis of the concrete territorialization processes involved in the development of renewable energy projects. It draws empirical comparisons between French and German situations based on sociological surveys conducted in the Upper Rhine region. First, we conducted interviews of key actors of the regional energy scene on both sides of the Rhine, with 26 German and 30 French respondents. Then we used the software Alceste on the two sets of interviews in order to identify, through statistical and lexical analysis, the interactions and nodal issues in the field of renewable energies. As can be seen, the same type of topical questions were raised in both cases – questions about economic viability, technical possibilities and environmental acceptability – in relation to very diverse renewable energy projects. The study also showed that a plurality of institutional and noninstitutional actors – private or public actors as well as citizens – took part in the territorialization dynamics at work in renewable energy projects. The sectors involved, the barriers and levers for the projects appear to result from multi-scale interrelationships rather than deriving from one single model, neither designed at a local level nor developed in a global or top-down fashion.

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In Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa more broadly, decentralised solar electrification solutions hold out the promise of local development that both respects the environment and creates jobs. By examining the maintenance, repair, and recycling of photovoltaic solar equipment, this article compares these hopes to the actual impact of Kenya's solar policy on changes in a sector generally considered to provide local jobs, and with the potential to make a major environmental contribution to a resource-efficient circular economy conducive to recycling and reuse. It starts by showing that Kenya’s strategy of developing a dynamic solar market has had little impact on repair activities. First, because the industry’s dominant companies bypass the fundis (as technicians working in the pre-existing urban repair and recycling economy are called). And second, because repair is marginal to these companies’ business models. It then argues that repair services and know-how are being rendered obsolete by the increasing number of disposable microelectronic components in solar equipment, and looks at the environmental consequences of an industry producing increasing quantities of waste that is unsatisfactorily managed. In the light of these observations, it finally discusses the ambiguities of an electricity policy presented as conducive to a new relocalised green economy.

By the end of the 1990s in France, the first labels have been created to distinguish the singularity of 20th-century architecture. However, a large part of its building stock suffers from energy deficiencies, and most of them need major retrofitting to align with today’s habitability standards. If current technologies offer a wide array of devices that meet performance demands, their implementation does not always comply with heritage protection goals. As part of a transdisciplinary research project, our team studies the acceptability and feasibility of the renovation of various buildings of the 20th-century, using “the ventilated double-skin”. The goal is to set renovation protocols that incorporate architectural and cultural evaluation in the technical analysis of energy and comfort needs. In this paper, we present our methodology and first results and aim to highlight the importance of complementary approaches to help inform sustainable interventions on this unique heritage.

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Copyright of VertigO is the property of La Revue Electronique en Sciences de l'Environnement VertigO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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In recent years, French energy policy has been increasingly oriented towards renewable energies, creating a new demand for French agriculture, which goes beyond its mission of producing agricultural products to include energy (electricity, gas, heat), particularly through the development of agricultural methanisation. This research, based on the study of the recent development of agricultural methanisation in two small agricultural regions of Bretagne and Grand-Est, highlights the limits and paradoxes of the deployment of this conception of the energy transition in agriculture: high investments that lead to inequality of access to these projects, reinforcement of existing social inequalities, and incomes that are highly dependent on subsidised energy rates. It invites to question the compatibility of this movement with the perspective of setting up a more sustainable and equitable agriculture.

The energy transition policy conducted by the European institutions is in line with the previous policies of integration and liberalization of the energy sector initiated in the 1990s. Because it is thought in coherence with these policies, it postulates in principle that this transition policy must take place on a European scale. This article questions this presupposition by analyzing both European energy legislation and the discourse built around it. It compares the constructions and representations of alternative scales for this transition, carried by other actors. This diversity of scales of representation and territorialization of the energy transition opens up a more geopolitical questioning on the modification of the territorial balance of power by this new use of resources, which generates issues of appropriation, access and control.

Before appearing on the public policy agenda at the turn of the century, renewable energies were initially promoted by actors proposing an alternative project for society. Deeply monopolistic, centralised and polluting, nuclear energy was then castigated in favour of a diversity of renewable energies (conviviality, democratic, ecological). Today, the technical characteristics of these energies have changed profoundly. Wind power, originally tinkered with by small groups, is becoming a real industry in the pursuit of gigantism. This article shows that the unequal spatialization and the imposed and conflicting territorialization of this energy are contrary to the initial aspirations. Modern wind energy is initially concentrated in certain sparsely populated agricultural areas, whereas it was supposed to bring production closer to consumption. Moreover, in the municipalities where large wind turbines are developing, the working class is are over-represented and the middle-upper class under-represented. Furthermore, wind turbines have moved from techniques integrated into the natural environment to technologies that are spatially excluded from it. Finally, the definition of objectives by the State, the injection of electricity into the national grid and the technological monopoly of techno-industrial groups deprive local populations of a real appropriation. In many ways, renewable gigantism is incompatible with a project of social emancipation.

The purpose of this article is to present how the lack of consensus on the concept of energy transition can be addressed in order to explain the actors’ strategies around renewable electricity generation projects. The study specifically addresses the definitions given by the actors of a French overseas territory, which are treated using a grid composed of 8 notions of energy transition. Taking three conflicting developments in renewable electricity generation as the case study, this article highlights how the positions of the actors toward these structures can be explained according to their interpretation of the energy transition. The results show that individuals take a stand for or against conflicting local projects because of a territorial and local vision of the concept of energy transition, relaying energy-climate issues in the background.

Decentralized solar electrification solutions hold out the hope, in Kenya as well as more broadly in sub-Saharan Africa, of local development respecting the environment and creating jobs. By focusing on the maintenance, repair and recycling of solar photovoltaic equipment, the article compares these expectations with the effects of Kenya's solar policy on the evolution of a sector that is generally considered to provide local employment and whose environmental contribution to a resource-efficient circular economy, conducive to recycling and reuse, is potentially important. First, it shows that the Kenyan strategy of developing a dynamic solar market has little effect on repair activities: on the one hand, the fundis, artisans of a pre-existing urban economy of repair and recycling, are bypassed by the sector's dominant companies; on the other hand, repair occupies a marginal place in the business models of these companies. It then underlines that repair services and know-how are progressively rendered obsolete by the increasing integration of disposable microelectronic components in solar equipment, and questions the environmental consequences of an industry producing increasing quantities of waste in a context where their management remains problematic. In light of these observations, it finally discusses the ambiguities of an electrical policy presented as favorable to the emergence of a new relocalized green economy.

This paper brings the virtuous calls to energy transition and its technical equipment in confrontation with its actual implementation through local renewable energy projects, by studying the case of onshore wind energy projects from a Franco-German comparative perspective. The analysis rests on a comparative review of the recent French-, German- and English-language literature in the social sciences in order to approach and frame the main issues, both on a theoretical and more practical level, related to conflict and participation among key players, scales of action, or the multiple socio-economic, environmental or aesthetic and sensory perceptions of wind energy. The aim is to identify fruitful approaches for the analysis of the “new landscapes” of wind energy, based on analysis of the controversies around citizen participation/mobilization and social acceptability, while taking into account the insights of research on energy transition / Wende at the local scale in both French and German territories. Analysis of the research on the subject has been conducted from a qualitative, not bibliometric, perspective; it has not sought exhaustiveness and is based on scholarly publications rather than on grey literature or practitioner sources; it has also tried to maintain a balance between French and German studies and to select easily accessible material, published papers or books, rather than PhD dissertations; finally, to provide concrete illustrations, the analysis has mainly focused on the border areas of the Upper Rhine region, without limiting itself to them.

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The push for decarbonization in Canada’s energy system is driving rapid social and technological innovation in the energy sector. Community energy planning is a rapidly evolving social movement and governance innovation that aims to minimize the impacts and maximize the benefits of these structural changes. This brief introduction to the special issue provides an overview of core principles, challenges, opportunities, and questions that surround community energy planning in Canada. Contributions to the special issue are summarized and situated in the context of this broader perspective. Issues for future research are identified.

The global trends taking place within the framework of the change of the technological way of life have largely determined the modern transformations taking place in the energy sector. These transformations have become the result of the challenges that have manifested themselves in recent years, and which have already acquired a large-scale character in many ways. They are associated with the rapid development of carbon-free, nature-like energy generation technologies based on renewable energy sources, distributed energy generation, the growth of consumer activity in regulating their demand, intellectualization, digitalization, decarbonization, integration and other processes taking place in the energy sector. These processes are objective and do not depend on conjunctural, political or any other preferences. In these conditions, the most important task of the present and future development and functioning of energy systems and the fuel and energy complex as a whole of the energy sector is to preserve the stability of their functioning and stable operation, ensuring socio-economic growth and energy security of the country.

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This article is devoted to the contemporary processes of low carbon energy transition. These processes are largely driven by future climate-energy scenarios that convey a simplistic representation of time. The scenarios focus on the tension between the long term (carbon emissions) and the short term (investments), a perspective that narrows down the attention we can pay to a diversity of intermediate temporalities, associated to local collective dynamics and heritages, which can play a role in the deployment of transition processes. To take into account the multiple (physical, biological, social) temporalities brought into play by these processes, this paper proposes a relational approach to time based on a pragmatic analytical framework. It aims at thinking about our “low carbon contemporaneities”. While the scenarios of transition are embedded in a homogeneous and empty time, without duration, the “low carbon contemporaneities” would be proposals of duration to be articulated. This approach makes it possible to follow the renewed forms of domination that emerge in the name of “transition” as well as the forms of emancipation that are invented on the margins of industrial capitalism, as well as in the midst of its ruins or through the rerouting of its means.

The energy transition has been inserted in the development roadmap, as part of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement, together with the “just transition”, ratified during the COP 24. In a context of an organic crisis of globalization, aggravated by the impacts of the Covid-19 health crisis, it is relevant to analyse from the critical perspective of international relations and international political economy, what imperatives and opportunities the just energy transition offers to Latin America, from a global and regional perspective.

This article analyzes the general characteristics of Mexico’s energy matrix, as well as the current limited and potential capacities for energy production from renewable power sources. The regulatory framework that defines the context for clean energy production, the institutional actors and the existing incentives are also analyzed. Our purpose is to show the dilemmas and tensions that prevent advancement towards a greater use of renewable power sources in the country, especially after the recent change of government.

The permanent shut down of Fessenheim nuclear power plant in June 2020 had been preceded by the signature of a policy document, the Projet d’avenir du territoire de Fessenheim (PAT), which aims at ensuring its industrial reconversion. Drafted by the French administration’s services and local authorities, it introduces three spatial scales framing the post-nuclear transition. Mobilizing the case of Fessenheim, this paper offers to strengthen our knowledge of the politics of scales’ concrete practices within energy transitions by questioning (1) the impact of these three scales on the post-nuclear transition and (2) the sociopolitical dynamics leading to their production. By moderating the dominant constructivist approach to scales, sometimes criticized for its teleological nature, we focus on actors’ “scalecrafts”, understood as the messy craftwork, techniques, competences and difficulties underpinning all scalar assemblage. To do so, this paper is built on a corpus of regional newspaper’s articles and 46 semi-directive interviews with actors involved in the PAT’s production. Results show that these scales, which are effectively constraining the extend of the post-nuclear transition, relies on three dynamics: discursive strategies tending to naturalize and essentialize scales through the economization of the debates as well as legal interpretations; the politicization of the transition around the conflicting issue of tax losses’ compensation; and lobbying efforts by local authorities. We conclude by identifying seven entangled factors participating in the scales’ production. These results lead us to question the process of territorial denuclearization.

In this article, the author present some aspects regarding the energy transition in Romania that are currently facing barriers in the reform of his energy market. While the European Union aims, by the European Green Deal, to decarbonise the economy by 2050, the countries of the European Union are struggling with dysfunctional energy markets and a high dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. European Union states have made national commitments to achieve long-term greenhouse gas neutrality and are now adopting national laws to achieve this objective. EU countries have approved the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Energy production and use account for more than 75% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions. At EU level, the target for reducing GHG emissions was set at 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, in addition to a target of 32% for renewable energy and a target of 32.5% for improving energy efficiency. The increase in the price of carbon dioxide emissions has led to the collapse of coal production, so that 15 states of the European Union have adopted national plans for the total elimination of coal by 2050. Only four states including Romania are beginning to adopt the plans their national coal disposal. Coal replacement plans provide for the use of clean energy from renewable sources and natural gas. But the European Union states are dependent on the imports of natural gas which leads to the focus on increasing energy obtained from renewable sources.

The issue of the energy transition, that can be defined as the transition from the use of fossil fuels (in particular coal) to low-carbon energy resources (such as wind, solar and natural gas), is assuming an increasingly central importance in the public debateand has increasingly become the focus of public concern. Scientifically speaking, the challenge and goal of achieving pursuing a more sustainable and fairer low-carbon energy sector globally has encouraged the proliferation of a series of scientific contributions, in various fields of knowledge. The paper shows the results of a literature review on the topic of energy transition. The review takes into consideration a selection of papers taken from international scientific journals with the aim of mapping at a broader level the research on the topic and the issues that were mainly addressed in the years between 2015 and 2020. With the more specific aim of understanding the role of sociology in the international scientific debate on the energy transition, the paper aims to provide an overview of 1) research fields and disciplines; 2) places of publication; 3) research topics and questions.

Participatory practices in the environment and planning fields are tending to become more widespread (Alban et al., 2005). In France, citizen participation has been encouraged by a significant legislative trend since the 1980s and 1990s, which has led to the implementation of various types of public consultation processes (Raymond, 2009), some permanent, others temporary and most of which now have to include the participation of residents (Blondiaux, 2008; Muller, 2005). This development in participatory democracy, however, has come in for much criticism (Gourgues et al., 2013): some see the risk of it weakening representative democracy; others, on the contrary, deplore the lack of ambition of participatory processes, which rarely lead to co-decisions and often fail to secure equal expression for all points of view. In France, the Public Debate process was established by law under Act n°95-101 of February 2, 1995 on protection of the environment. The aim was to find a solution to address the strong opposition to major infrastructure projects, particularly high-speed railway lines (Lolive, 1999), observed in the early 1990s, the causes of which were considered to be a lack of information and a lack of consideration for the local populations affected (Dziedzicki, 2001). This consultation process is open to all citizens and was designed for major development projects with a high environmental impact. It aims to build up the social acceptability of a project through exchanges of different points of view (Gaudin, 2007; Doury et al., 2006; Blondiaux, 2008; Oiry, 2015). In reality, this public sphere for consultation does not always succeed in building consensus. How far are contentious positions taken into account in a participatory process that aims to avoid conflict in order to bring about a negotiated agreement on a project? How real is citizen empowerment in such public debates?This article aims to answer these questions by assessing the quality of participation in the case of a public debate process organized in 2011-2012 in south-western France (Landes département). This debate concerned an industrial gas storage project which, according to the project leader, would contribute to the energy transition. The research method was based on analysis of a textual corpus made up of verbatim transcriptions of the nine public meetings organized by the local committee in charge of organizing the public debate (CPDP) and on participant observation (the author being a member of this committee).The following results can be highlighted: - During this public debate, possibilities for citizens' expression of their views were very restrictive. - However, citizen participation in the public debate was very high.- During and outside the public debate process, a well-structured and cogently argued opposition movement to the project was gradually set up.- The emergence of this conflict has multiple causes and can be explained in particular by the specific characteristics of the area affected by the project.- The citizens mobilizing against the project never boycotted or obstructed the public debate process, but diverted it from its original purpose to turn it into a forum for protest.- While some researchers have emphasized the instrumentalization of mobilized citizens (Neveu, 2011) or their depoliticization (Gourgues, 2018) in public debates, the opposite was observed in the case studied here.

The multiple uses of hydrogen – as a mean to store energy, for mobility or cogeneration of electricity and heat, as a vector to bridge between energy networks – make it a key vector of the energy transition. Many countries and regions are thus embarking on a hydrogen roadmap, with the objective of a progressive decarbonization of their energy system. The analysis of hydrogen technologies deployment trajectories – in Canada, Japan and France – shows that the success of these initiatives depends on several sets of conditions : 1) a clear and well-argued contribution to the energy transition effort, associated with strong political support ; 2) national R&D, demonstration and industrialization activities, preparing for deployment, and supported by appropriate financial mechanisms ; 3) engagement of all stakeholders in the debates on the role of hydrogen in the energy transition, as well as in the definition and implementation of local deployment project

This article proposes a comparative analysis grid test of three territorial transition trajectories. It defines the territorial opportunity structure of transition, territorial energy capacity and the right to transition as criteria for reading what is at work in the energy transition via the hydrogen vector. It shows that although hydrogen plays a mediating role in the territorialization of the energy transition, it is part of a techno-economic framework that leaves little room for territorial projects likely to go beyond the issues of social acceptability of the techniques.

The paper summarizes the premises of an emerging model of leadership. This model bears on all domains of leadership but not to the same extent. The political, economic and technoscientific initiatives regarding the environment are particularly concerned. The main purpose of the paper is to help understand, anticipate and possibly accelerate changes in the area of leadership. The model draws on extensive empirical research on social movements, uncertainty and complexity in postindustrial societies, risk perception and the role of the environment in perceiving risks. As it is impossible to include all links to these works in a single article, I limit my focus here on presenting a representative sample of the basic primary and secondary empirical references.

Can a lay person help a specialist – the “knowing” person – to better understand his own field ? Can he effectively participate in the creation of new knowledge alongside the specialist ? This article presents an original experimental device, proposing to laypersons-neophytes to test a technological project integrated in the ecological transition path that a French region, Normandy, has chosen for itself. New technical questions, unthought of social problems and astonishments on the way the project is conducted, laypersons-neophytes will push to favor the emergence of another path of energy transition and will make the difficulties appear, or perhaps the impossibility of mingling two different projects in a single final result – i.e. a hydrogen training boat and an industrial demonstrator. We hope the good results of this experimental device will keep the reflection going on the role of laypersons-neophytes in participatory devices and raise the question of their productive technical legitimacy.

This paper presents the case study of the application of the Prior Informed and Free Consultation for the evaluation of a project of wind farm in Juchitán, city in the south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico where currently operates the largest wind farm series in Latin America. As an official mechanism, the Prior Consultation seeks to build social consensus and protect the human rights of the indigenous population. Nevertheless, we argue in this paper that without a specific public policy to solve the problems of wind farm planning, and without changes in the current top-down planning management, its application remains illusory and cannot guarantee the protection of the rights it seeks to defend.

Biorefineries are considered as the best incarnation of energy and environmental transition. They transform agricultural or forest feedstock into different products (energy, material, platform molecules) while imitating classical oil refinery. Public authorities and agro-industrial firms consider that biorefineries contribute to a positive narration. As a matter of fact, these infrastructures of biomass valorisation are supposed to satisfy environmental imperatives and be consistent with the principles of circular economy. Notwithstanding biorefineries do not deeply change the current relationships between farmers and agro-industrial firms, between infrastructure and the siting area.

The 14 Inuit communities of Nunavik (Quebec Arctic) are supplied with electricity from small diesel generating plants. These communities demonstrate a growing interest in the idea of developing renewable energy sources for their supply (wind, hydroelectricity, solar), with an environmental concern, of course, but also as an affirmation of their economic and political autonomy. These projects, however, generate lively debates within communities and met with resistance, both locally and at the level of regional and political institutions. How are these debates structured and what do they mean about local representations ?

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The introduction to this special issue on the politicization of the subsurface aims to analyse the multiple uses of the subsurface that are emerging due to global changes, and the conflicts about these uses, through the prism of the politicization of this environment. The paper starts from the specific nature of this environment for which no direct experience is possible and whose knowledge and utilization must therefore depend on techniques. This partly explains the particular forms taken by opposition to the uses of the subsurface, which range from population enlistment, eruptive social movements to radical criticism of capitalism. However, the uses of the subsurface and their contestation do not always lead to politicization, meaning that no public debate takes place about the choice of a technical option in terms of energy transition. Reading the articles in this special issue from the analytical standpoint of politicization, which implies that uses should be credible, governable and legitimate, this introduction shows the insufficient politicization of French subsurface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]