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According to the greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol for cities, GHGs are responsible for an estimated 75 per cent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. This represents a key opportunity to tackle climate change. With the year 2023 and, in particular, the month of July delivering record-breaking temperatures, this demonstrates a clear need to accelerate decarbonisation and, in this context, to reduce the carbon footprint of cities. Further, acting on urban development addresses a number of key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). Many cities, however, are struggling to break away from a reliance on carbon and some are economically dependent on it. This paper seeks to investigate, through an energy justice lens, some first considerations of how to secure just and sustainable urban regeneration. It posits that energy justice, and its five core principles, is a useful analytical tool for considering the justice and development concerns related to the transition to a low-carbon world. The cities examined in brief in this comparative study are Bordeaux in France, Venice in Italy, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Bangkok in Thailand. The research posits that despite different trajectories, cities can play a leading role in ensuring justice and sustainability in our low-carbon world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green hydrogen provides one solution for a just transition to a low-carbon economy in the Global South. Absorption of green hydrogen into the energy mix will assist in decarbonising the hard-to-abate sectors, and it may even contribute to the economies of these countries when they transport to the Global North which has excess demand for it. However, this new pivot may also introduce new energy injustices, and this is what this paper focuses on. Through a comparative law analysis of three countries each from the Asia-Pacific (China, Vietnam and Thailand), South America (Brazil, Chile and Colombia) and Africa (South Africa, Kenya and Namibia), and by looking through the lens of procedural justice, this paper marks the first comprehensive examination of this concept for green hydrogen. It analyses the trajectory of these countries in terms of their introduction of green hydrogen into their renewable energy mix. Then there is an assessment of their successes and failures, the identification of gaps in policy, and the role of procedural justice in moving the green hydrogen legal frameworks forward is also examined. Finally, policy solutions to future-proof green hydrogen legal frameworks for the attention of policymakers are advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been over a decade since the article that kickstarted energy justice research was published in 2012. It focused on the 'triumvirate of tenets' of justice, which were distributive, procedural and recognition justice. Today in 2023, and with significant developments of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there needs to be a revision. Over time, the three tenets have become five as scholars began to advance thinking on energy justice into policymaking. Energy justice now is creating an impact, and policymakers and governments are beginning to recognise its value for meeting energy and climate targets. Energy justice can be a vehicle for investment and also for improving the socio-economic performance of an economy. Adopting the now five principles (tenets) of energy justice reduces the inherent risks in the energy sector and more broadly in society. The now five principles (moving beyond tenets) of energy justice are: distributive, procedural, restorative, recognition and cosmopolitan justice. These have been integrated into significant law and policy documents in the United States and Colombia, in 2022 and 2023. It is just a matter of time before many other countries begin to utilise them to achieve transformative change in their societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector is increasingly out of date and in need of a new direction. There continues to be a myriad of issues emanating from the sector, most notably with climate change, environmental impacts and economic governance. Climate change continues at pace and with the United Nations having already declared there to be a climate emergency. Yet the response of energy sector stakeholders with the power to make the necessary changes in society remains slow. Too much investment continues in the old traditional energy sources. This research accepts these positions and that therefore the relationship between the stakeholders of the energy sector is imbalanced. In order to change this relationship so that it is fair, equitable and inclusive it is necessary to place (energy) justice at the core of a new social contract between the stakeholders of the energy sector (which includes policymakers, private and public energy companies, and citizens). This research advances 10 key pathways for scholarship on energy justice and the social contract. These topics need to be addressed from local to national and international levels. In resolving these research problems society can address the fundamental imbalances that exist between energy stakeholders and ensure a just and brave new world established through this new energy-just social contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An international debate is needed on what energy law is required for society to achieve its energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050. This editorial and the special issue that follows focus on Energy Law for the Next Generation, Towards 2030 to 2050. Legal scholarship to date has not evolved sufficiently to play its role in the energy transition and in ensuring the effects of climate change are mitigated. There remain too many gaps in the law, in particular around decommissioning of fossil fuel energy infrastructure and management of waste from fossil fuel activities, ie carbon taxes. The overall key challenges for energy law are to address climate change, environmental impacts and economic governance. New visions of what energy law must be reformed or newly formulated are needed. Currently, in education, in practice and in research, the status quo remains. The research perspectives in the articles for this special issue will hopefully inspire the next generation of energy law scholars to provide solutions. It is, after all, a key 'justice' issue to ensure that as an energy law community, we leave a foundation in place that can lead to a just transition to a low-carbon and sustainable world for future generations within the science-based critical deadlines such as 2030 and 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the energy sector and society is one that remains mired in controversy. There are multiple problems such as climate change, environmental impacts, economic and governance issues. With these problems continuing to exist, the energy sector has lacked any fully successful solutions. This conceptual paper calls for implementing the key theoretical perspective of energy justice as a solution. If energy justice is implemented through a new social contract with society, then transformative change could happen. This new societal social contract is a vital development needed throughout the world where there is already a climate emergency, as declared by the United Nations. A social contract between different stakeholders in society has always been an issue in society. It was a brought to the fore in France through the work of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century. One of Rousseau's major theories was that a civil society should ensure its citizens' rights and well-being. The energy sector is the key reason that this is not happening today. Therefore, such a new social contract could implement energy justice and achieve transformative societal change, protecting rights and ensuring well-being for all, and hence delivering a just transition to a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Highlights • The Energy Justice Metric (EJM) quantifies energy justice. • The EJM balances competing aims of the energy trilemma. • Presents energy justice performance of US, UK, Germany, Denmark and Ireland. • The EJM addresses inequality in the energy sector and society. Abstract Energy justice is a fast emerging research and policy tool which captures the injustices across the energy life-cycle, i.e., from 'cradle-to-grave'. The Energy Justice Metric (EJM) quantifies energy justice through analyzing the energy justice performance of different countries utilising data from international institutions and national governments. This paper identifies why there is a need for a modeling tool such as the EJM which focuses on the full energy life-cycle and also has a distributive (inequality-correcting) oriented approach. The EJM demonstrates how a country can achieve an improved balance between the three competing aims of the energy trilemma, i.e. economics, politics and the environment. A key feature of the EJM is modeling energy justice using a ternary plot where the energy justice performance of a country can be transferred directly onto the energy trilemma. In this paper, five countries are analysed, the US, UK, Germany, Denmark and Ireland. The EJM presents a research and policy decision-making tool that can contribute to the growing literature that tackles the issue of inequality in society, and informs on society's decision on which energy source would be more just for a society to build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘just transition’ is a concept receiving more attention in the literature to-date. This critical review discusses this and how there are overlaps with literature on energy, environmental and climate justice. Within the separate energy, environment and climate change scholar communities, there is too much distortion of what the ‘transition’ means and what ‘justice’ means, and they all should be understood within the just transition concept. To increase public understanding and public acceptance of a just transition, these research communities need to unite rather than continue alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy justice has become a leading interdisciplinary energy research topic over the last decade. There has been a realisation that the energy sector was missing an overall raison d'être , and that is to have justice permeating throughout the sector. This expert insight opens the door to a more practical element that is needed within this energy justice research. It focuses on how energy justice can be applied and implemented into the energy transition. All energy researchers can connect with the topic of justice, and as such, it should be the same when thinking of the energy sector. Normatively all researchers and practitioners should have a common goal and vision of how the energy sector should develop over the coming decades. This common goal and vision is not just brought on due to technological change that has created the energy transition but also the provision of a more fair, equal, equitable and inclusive transition (i.e., justice). National legal systems define what this justice will be and these institutions will create what in essence are the 'rules of the game' for the energy sector. This expert insight explores how these institutions act, enforce and create those rules of the game when they resolve disputes that arise. In solving these disputes between different parties, law creates the rules of the game as they interpret how law is applied in practice to different stakeholders. The legal system allocates different stakeholders rights and obligations, and ultimately decides on a hierarchy of these rights. This expert insight provides a brief overview of analysis from 100 legal cases from across the world and demonstrates which forms of justice and human rights are being implemented in the energy transition today. This represents a starting point, and the aim is that society needs to go far beyond this in order to ensure we meet in an accelerated way our future climate goals and ambitions for a sustainable world. • Implementation of energy justice will ensure the move from theory to practice. • Energy justice can be implemented through national courts. • National courts implement energy justice differently across the energy life-cycle. • National courts can implement energy justice via protecting human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Describes the nexus of energy justice, supply and security. [•] Three tenets of energy justice: distributional, procedural and recognition justice. [•] Application of energy justice promotes growth of an supply chain and energy security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the dual challenges of reducing emissions from fossil fuels and providing access to clean and affordable energy, there is an imperative for a transition to a low carbon energy system. The transition must take into consideration questions of energy justice to ensure that policies, plans and programmes guarantee fair and equitable access to resources and technologies. An energy justice framework is outlined to account for distributional, procedural and recognition inequalities, as well as emerging themes such as cosmopolitan and non-Western understandings of justice, in decision-making relating to energy systems. The spectrum of research offers critical perspectives on the energy transition as well as tools for decision-making and policy processes. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods all contribute to our understanding of the problems and the success of responses. The studies presented in this special issue illustrate that the field of energy justice is a rapidly growing arena. There is constant innovation taking place in enabling the transition with new structures, processes and metrics being introduced to guide decision-making and a more holistic view of the community emerging where acceptance, mobilisation and empowerment are opening possibilities for a just transition to a low carbon energy system. The importance of introducing the interdisciplinary approach between social sciences and natural sciences as well engineering implementation supported by scientific data and experiments shall be emphasized in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]