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Despite the importance of electrification for economic and social development, over one billion people globally lack access to electricity, primarily in rural areas of developing countries. Alongside the traditional means of expanding access, large-scale grid electrification, there exists another option for rural electrification: small-scale and localized distributed generation (DG), often powered by renewable energy sources. DG systems can be grid-connected or off-grid and can range in scale from less than 10Wsolar lanterns at the small end to 60MWbiomass generation. Although DG has enabled some level of access to electricity for millions of people, little or no research has analyzed how the scale or level of access to electricity has shaped the ways that programs are financed or are viewed by governments, or the developmental impacts that various levels have on end-users. This article reviews the literature on DG in developing countries and finds that large-scale DG systems require a different set of approaches to finance, end-user training, and public policy support than do small-scale DG systems. Our review also reveals that even the smallest scaleDGsystems improve users' quality of life, yet access to electricity alone is not sufficient to achieve desired economic and social development goals. Policy makers, donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other actors engaged in rural developmentmust both (1) make decisions considering the scale of DG programs, and (2) reflect on end-users' needs and productive uses for electricity if rural electrification projects are to result in long-term development benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential environmental and economic benefits of carbon capture and storage (CCS), many factors limit its prospects for implementation, including economic feasibility, geologic and legal constraints, risk uncertainties, and public acceptance. This study focuses on the challenge of public acceptance and support by analyzing survey data on publis attitudes toward CCS implementation in the coal-intensive state of Indiana. It was determined that specific information that defined individuals’ general world views can be used to predict support or opposition for CCS implementation. However, additional analysis found that specific attitudes about potential CCS risks and benefits are also significantly correlated with support or opposition to CCS implementation. These variables include: the respondents’ impressions of the potential dangers associated with CCS; attitudes about the potential for CCS implementation to bring jobs to the local economy; and the amount of fear of a CCS facility near their home or community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When a household is energy burdened, its members may struggle to pay its energy bills and face the potential of service disconnection. While such conditions can inflict mental and physical harm on household members, more significant consequences include death from exposure to excessive heat or cold. State utility disconnection policies have the potential to protect vulnerable populations from such outcomes. In this article, we examine disconnection policies, and the immense variation that they exhibit across states. We discuss how different policy protections interact and how seemingly minor differences in policy design produce significant differences in levels of protection. We further show how a changing climate is leading to increased exposure to extreme temperatures, and discuss how policy reforms could address these risks. We conclude with a set of recommendations for how to improve the design of such protections, expand their reach, and monitor and track utility connections and disconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) policies currently implemented across the U.S. and the potential for these policies to facilitate widespread PEV diffusion. We examine the relationship between overlapping regulatory and fiscal policies at the federal and state levels of government. We argue that the current suite of policies is not as effective as it could be, and potentially more expensive. Our analysis suggests the existence of a tradeoff between the goals of increasing the market penetration of PEVs and that of limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle fleet. The way federal and state policies interact puts those two goals at odds, at least in the short-term. Drawing from the policy and economics literatures, we summarize a series of recommendations and incentives that could deliver a more balanced approach to the achievement of those two policy goals. We conclude with some research suggestions. • We examine four main PEV deployment policies currently in place in the U.S. • Policy objectives are to accelerate deployment of PEVs and reduce greenhouse gases. • We identify the conflicting incentives those policies offer. • We address the implications from the lack of their coordination. • We propose ways to better integrate the policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity is core to sustainability, but current interventions to enhance sustainability often fall short in adequately addressing this linkage. Models are important tools for informing action, and their development and use present opportunities to center equity in process and outcomes. This Perspective highlights progress in integrating equity into systems modeling in sustainability science, as well as key challenges, tensions, and future directions. We present a conceptual framework for equity in systems modeling, focused on its distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. We discuss examples of how modelers engage with these different dimensions throughout the modeling process and from across a range of modeling approaches and topics, including water resources, energy systems, air quality, and conservation. Synthesizing across these examples, we identify significant advances in enhancing procedural and recognitional equity by reframing models as tools to explore pluralism in worldviews and knowledge systems; enabling models to better represent distributional inequity through new computational techniques and data sources; investigating the dynamics that can drive inequities by linking different modeling approaches; and developing more nuanced metrics for assessing equity outcomes. We also identify important future directions, such as an increased focus on using models to identify pathways to transform underlying conditions that lead to inequities and move toward desired futures. By looking at examples across the diverse fields within sustainability science, we argue that there are valuable opportunities for mutual learning on how to use models more effectively as tools to support sustainable and equitable futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We conduct a Total Cost of Ownership analysis to estimate the impacts that the 2017–2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will have on sales of light duty vehicles (cars and light trucks). Vehicle sales are an important macroeconomic indicator that can impact both the economic outlook of the automobile industry as well as the efficacy of the CAFE standards. Our analysis focuses on the relative impacts of three determinants of the net premium consumers' face when deciding whether to purchase a new vehicle, namely: 1) consumers' valuation of fuel savings, 2) fuel price variation over time, and 3) gross price premium of the vehicle due to the Federal Standards. We find that uncertainty about consumers' valuation of fuel savings leads to greater variation in estimated vehicle sales impacts than uncertainty about the gross price premium or fuel prices. Specifically, the estimated sales impacts for model year 2025 range from −7% to +3% and −4% to +5% for cars and light trucks, respectively, when we vary assumptions about valuation of fuel savings. The range of estimates is −6% to −2% and −2% to 0.5% for cars and light trucks, respectively, when we vary the gross price premium and −4% to +1% and −1% to +3% for cars and light trucks, respectively, when we vary fuel prices for model year 2025. These percentages are computed relative to a baseline scenario where CAFE standards remain fixed at 2016 levels. Our findings highlight the importance of more carefully examining the uncertainty introduced through consumer valuation of fuel economy in the mid-term reviews of the CAFE standards. Highlights • Consumer valuation of fuel economy greatly affects the sales of new vehicles. • Fuel price variation and technology costs also matter but to a lesser extent. • CAFE standards should more carefully consider the impacts of fuel valuation uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Survey of adult drivers in US cities on intent to purchase an electric vehicle. • Distinct profiles of respondents preferring different types of electric vehicles. • Plug-in hybrid vehicle interest is grounded in economic utility. • Image and perceived environmental impact drive battery electric vehicle interest. Abstract This study analyzes data from a survey of drivers (n = 1080) administered in late 2013 to assess factors that influence potential car buyers to consider two different types of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the United States: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results indicate distinct profiles of respondents preferring PHEVs, which have a gasoline backup engine, versus battery BEVs, which rely solely on a battery for power. Respondents interested in selecting a PHEV consider it more for its economic benefits, such as reduced gasoline and maintenance expenditures. Respondents preferring a BEV are drawn to its environmental and technological appeal. The absence of range anxiety for PHEV is a major factor influencing potential PEV buyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a household is disconnected from their electric utility service the consequences can be severe, including accumulation of debt, the inability to maintain comfortable temperatures, and in the most extreme cases, homelessness or mortality. While the survey-based literature on utility disconnections has yielded important findings about which households are most likely to experience a utility shutoff, only a few existing studies have used data from utility companies themselves. In this analysis, we utilize zip-code level data from four of California's largest utility providers to measure sociodemographic disparities in disconnections, in addition to the impact of adverse weather. We find that zip codes with a higher share of vulnerable households, especially Black and Hispanic households and households with young children, face a higher number and rate of utility disconnections, even after controlling for an extensive set of factors that are commonly thought to explain higher rates of energy insecurity, including income, housing characteristics, and energy costs. Our analysis also suggests that sociodemographic and weather disparities in disconnections differ between utility types. We conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for research and policy, including the impact of regulation, utility provider practices, and more extreme weather driven by climate change., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Energy insecurity-the inability to secure one's energy needs-impacts millions of Americans each year. A particularly severe instance of energy insecurity is when a utility disconnects a household from service, affecting its ability to refrigerate perishable food, purchase medicine, or maintain adequate temperatures. Governments can protect vulnerable populations from disconnections through policies, such as shutoff moratoria or seasonal protections that limit disconnections during extreme weather months. We take advantage of the temporary disconnection moratoria that states implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the efficacy of state protections on rates of disconnection, spending across other essential needs, and uptake of bill payment assistance. We find that protections reduce disconnections and the need for households to forgo other expenses. We further find that protections are most beneficial to people of color and households with young children. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications for energy-insecure populations., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Author(s).)

The energy transition toward lower-carbon energy sources will inevitably result in socioeconomic impacts on certain communities, particularly those that have historically produced fossil fuel resources and electricity generation using fossil fuels. Such communities stand to lose jobs, tax revenues, and support for public services. Which communities are most likely to be affected, which are more susceptible to being harmed, and how to target adaptive capacity programs-such as economic development and workforce training-accordingly are pressing scholarly and policy questions. In this study, we apply a vulnerability framework to calculate, rank, and map exposure and sensitivity scores for fossil fuel producing regions in the US. We find that, while counties in most regions of the United States will be affected by the transition away from fossil fuels, counties in Appalachia, Texas and the Gulf Coast region, and the Intermountain West are likely to experience the most significant impacts, and some regions experience overlapping and significant incidence of vulnerability. These results can be used to target future adaptive capacity programs., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The world must ambitiously curtail greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate stability. The literature often supposes that a low-carbon future will depend on a mix of technological innovation-improving the performance of new technologies and systems-as well as more sustainable behaviours such as travelling less or reducing waste. To what extent are low-carbon technologies, and their associated behaviours, currently equitable, and what are potential policy and research implications moving forward? In this Review, we examine how four innovations in technology and behaviour-improved cookstoves and heating, battery electric vehicles, household solar panels and food-sharing-create complications and force trade-offs on different equity dimensions. We draw from these cases to discuss a typology of inequity cutting across demographic (for example, gender, race and class), spatial (for example, urban and rural divides), interspecies (for example, human and non-human) and temporal (for example, future generations) vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the risk of inequity abounds in decarbonization pathways. Moreover, low-carbon innovations are not automatically just, equitable or even green. We show how such technologies and behaviours can both introduce new inequalities and reaffirm existing ones. We then discuss potential policy insights and leverage points to make future interventions more equitable and propose an integrated research agenda to supplement these policy efforts., (© 2022. Springer Nature Limited.)