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Motivation: In this article, we examine the role of norms in protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples with regard to hydroelectric dams. We argue that the way large‐scale dams are built and managed—including their impacts on Indigenous Peoples—varies according to the political context of the host country. In more restrictive political contexts, norms may often be neglected or compromised. Purpose: The political system and domestic legislation are crucial factors that need to be considered in more depth in research scholarship on dams. We contribute to filling this research gap by presenting a comparative analysis of the Bakun dam in Malaysia and the Gibe III dam in Ethiopia, demonstrating that norms tend to be ignored or compromised in restrictive and authoritarian political environments. Approach and Methods: We compare the similarities and differences of these two dam projects systematically drawing on empirical field research comprising interviews, focus group discussions and the analysis of primary and secondary documents. Findings: Our research reveals that international and private norms are often neglected in partly free or unfree political systems. Even domestic legislation can be circumvented by a strong or authoritarian state government, and this can lead to serious delays and neglect of protective standards. Policy Implications: International standards are often more ambitious than national standards and their implementation in the hydropower dams industry can help to improve the social and environmental sustainability of projects. Active civil society organizations can use norms and standards to strengthen social mobilization within the country and can transmit important information outside the country to build transnational alliances. Pressure and persuasion mechanisms can lead to norm change and norm compliance by state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates China's role as the world's largest builder of and investor in large dams, focussing on the Greater Mekong Sub- Region in South-East Asia. It addresses the role Chinese actors play in dam-building as well as the environmental, social, economic and political implications by drawing on case studies from Cambodia and Vietnam. The article finds that China's dam-building is perceived very differently in different countries of South-East Asia. In Cambodia, the dams in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region are considered instruments of economic growth and development, whereas downstream in Vietnam the dams are seen as potentially undermining national growth, development and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Vietnam has experienced rapid economic growth over the past few decades, as well as growing environmental pressures. The country is therefore pursuing strategies for green transformations, which are the processes of restructuring to bring economies and societies within the planetary boundaries. This article addresses the opportunities, barriers, and trade‐offs for green transformations in Vietnam's energy sector and examines them from an energy justice perspective. The article draws on in‐depths expert interviews with representatives from government agencies, private firms, academic institutions, and multilateral institutions in Vietnam. The article finds that Vietnam is undergoing efforts to move away from business as usual by promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as aligning energy and climate plans with national development priorities such as energy security and economic growth. Yet there is a need for more coordinated, integrated approaches and policies that span across the 3 areas that address green transformations in Vietnam: green growth, sustainable development, and climate change. Finally, although key actors seem to be aware and may be critical of major trade‐offs such as land grabs for energy projects, the impacts on affected people need to be better understood and mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the prospects of, and politics and practices around, solar energy in China. It examines two different solar energy technologies, namely, solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heaters (SWHs), to understand how different pathways for low-carbon innovation are supported and constrained by (the lack of) political support at the national and local level, the interactions between state and nonstate actors, as well as how they relate to changing practices among consumers. This article also discusses obstacles and trade-offs. We find two very different approaches to solar energy. The solar PV industry in China is experiencing increased domestic growth, after many years of being mainly export-oriented. Prices declined rapidly in recent years, and solar PV also enjoys much political and financial support from the central government and local governments. However, there are high bureaucratic and technical hurdles to get grid connected and access the feed-in-tariff, particularly for individual users. SWHs on the other side are a “homegrown” Chinese technology that is ubiquitous in China, particularly in rural areas; that is easy to install and use; and that has developed from the grassroots levels to mass products with relatively little government support. Although being largely neglected by high-level discussions and plans, SWHs could contribute much to low-carbon transitions that are driven at the local level in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy generation and their possible contribution to mitigating climate change. At the forefront of the renaissance of large hydropower dams are Chinese companies, as the builders of the world's largest dams at home and abroad, opening up opportunities for low- and middle-income countries. However, large hydropower dams, despite their possible developmental and carbon reduction contributions, are accompanied by huge economic costs, profound negative environmental changes and social impacts. Using fieldwork data from four hydropower projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cambodia and Malaysia, this paper evaluates the behaviour of Chinese stakeholders engaged in large hydropower projects in Asia and Africa. We do this by first exploring the interests of the different Chinese stakeholders and then by investigating the wider implications of these Chinese dams on the local, national and international contexts. The paper concludes that hydropower dams will continue to play a prominent role in future efforts to increase energy security and reduce energy poverty worldwide, therefore the planning, building and mitigation strategies need to be implemented in a more sustainable way that takes into account national development priorities, the needs of local people and the impacts on natural habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Large hydropower infrastructure development is a key energy priority in low and middle income countries as a means to increase energy access and promote national development. Nevertheless hydropower dams can also negatively impact people's livelihoods by reducing access to local natural resources such as land, water and food. This paper analyses equity-based resource allocation from an ecological economics perspective, by looking at local resource use competition between different uses (food, energy, livelihoods) and users (villagers, urban settlers, local government and dam builders) in selected case studies in Asia and Africa. It also illustrates from a political ecology approach divergences between national priorities of energy production and growth and local development needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper examines pathways towards solar energy in China by examining two different solar energy technologies, namely solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heaters (SWH). The paper investigates these two case studies to understand how different pathways for low carbon innovation are promoted and challenged by China's changing financing and policy-making, and how they relate to changing practices among producers and consumers. The paper finds two distinct approaches to solar energy. Chinese solar PV is predominantly produced for the export market, relies on intellectual property-intensive technology and has received much financial and political support from the central and provincial governments. On the other side, solar water heaters are an indigenous Chinese technology that is found everywhere across China, especially in rural areas. They have developed from grass-roots levels to mass products with very little central government support. Although being largely absent from high-level discussions and policies, solar water heaters could contribute a lot to China's low carbon transitions that are driven at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a shortage of empirical studies on the relationship between Chinese hydropower dams and social sustainability. Comparative research on Chinese-funded and Chinese-built hydropower projects is rare. This article aims to fill parts of this gap by discussing these issues in relation to Chinese overseas hydropower dams in Ghana ( Bui Dam) and Cambodia ( Kamchay Dam). Both projects are built by Sinohydro and financed by ExIm Bank. This article draws on in-depths interviews and focus group discussions with local communities affected by the dams, institutional actors in Ghana and Cambodia, Chinese actors, and dam builders. The article uses an environmental justice perspective as an analytical framework. The article concludes that the dam projects could improve their social sustainability framework in practice and theory; social benchmarking should be introduced and social policies need to be improved to be in line with international social standards on hydropower projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smog pollution is a severe social and environmental concern for the space-heating regions in China due to fossil-intensive space heating. To reduce polluting emissions and improve social and environmental performance, local government agencies should choose adequate cleaner space-heating technologies based on diverse local conditions. This implies that all cleaner heating solutions should be considered, including low-emissions fossil fuel district heating and low-emissions fossil fuel decentralized heating as transitional technologies, as well as biomass and electricity-driven heat pumps as long-term solutions. However, stakeholders such as policy makers, equipment manufacturers, and house owners, often lack necessary information to assess the feasibility for installing adequate heating solutions at the local level. It is therefore necessary to establish a systematic method to evaluate each heating solution in various geolocations of China. This paper reviews the current heating situation in China and proposes a spatial system analysis method as a tool for heating-solution feasibility evaluation. By applying the spatial system analysis method, a qualitative investigation on the choice of heating solution in different regions of China is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation and mitigation needs to cut across all poverty reduction efforts, including any post-2015 architecture. However, low carbon development (LCD) debates to date have been mainly about high- and middle-income countries. There are good reasons why even the poorest countries with low emissions might be interested in pursuing LCD. This article argues that we need to link up pro-poor policy debates with the low carbon debates as part of a post-MDG agenda. The article explores several policy responses to LCD and analyses how pro-poor these policy responses are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and India are heavily dependent on high-carbon fossil fuels. This article elaborates the implications of low-carbon energy transitions in the two countries, which can mitigate their serious contribution to climate change while allowing economic growth. Three modelling case studies are presented: for the Chinese power sector, the economy of Beijing and rural Indian households without access to electricity. They demonstrate a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, while costs are likely to increase. Financial assistance and technology transfer will be needed to support their efforts towards a climate-friendly low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Most global energy models are developed by institutes from developed countries, focusing primarily on issues that are important in industrialized countries. Evaluation of the results for Asia of the IPCC/SRES models shows that broad concepts of energy and development, the energy ladder and the environmental Kuznets curve, can be observed in the results of the models. However, improvements can be made in modeling the issues that underlie these concepts, like traditional fuels, electrification, economic structural change, income distribution, and informal economies. Given the rapidly growing importance of energy trajectories of developing countries for global sustainability, the challenge for the future is to develop energy models that include all these aspects of energy and development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Clean energy transitions based on the circular economy (CE) are analysed for a town in China. • This could reduce energy use, CO 2 emissions and PM 2.5 emissions compared to the BAU scenario. • COVID pandemic is a new opportunity to introduce circular economy measures. • Circular economy measures could accelerate clean energy transitions. This paper models the energy and emissions scenarios for a circular economy based clean energy transitions in a 140,000-population town in China, taking into account the new situation encountered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The modelled scenarios propose new clean energy transition roadmaps towards a sustainable urban system through the implementation of circular economy strategies. This is represented by the cascading use of industrial excess heat to form symbiosis between factories and to cover the growing building heat demand, as well as by the electrification of the transport sector and reusing the batteries for a second life as energy storage devices. The results show that for a circular economy scenario, during 2020–2040, an accumulated saving of 7.1 Mtoe final energy use (34%), a decline in 14.5 Mt CO 2 emissions (40%) and 592 t PM 2.5 emissions (43%) could be achieved compared with the business-as-usual scenario. The outcomes of the circular economy strategies are at least 7% better than the new policy scenario which simply has energy efficiency improvements. The outbreak of the COVID-19 tremendously impacts the socio-economic activities in the town. If taking the pandemic as an opportunity to enhance the circular economy, by 2040, compared with the scenario without introducing circular economy measures, the extra avoided final energy use, CO 2 emissions and PM 2.5 emissions could be 1.6 Mtoe (8%), 3.8 Mt (11%) and 229 t (17%) respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO2 emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition for electrification and increased use of biofuels will be essential for a successful transition towards carbon neutrality. The study focuses on Sweden as a reference case, as it is one of the most advanced countries in the decarbonisation of industries. The paper concludes that it may be technically feasible to deep decarbonise energy-intensive industries by 2045, given financial and political support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low carbon energy transitions are important to mitigate climate change, reduce air pollution, and reduce fossil fuel resource depletion. The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) are seen as leaders in low carbon energy transitions. This paper provides a comparative data analysis of low carbon energy transitions in the Nordic countries from the 1960s to 2015, and assesses evidence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The paper finds that the EKC has been observed in Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden in terms of total CO2 emissions, but not in Norway and Finland. For per capita CO2 emissions, there is evidence for the EKC in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden, but not for Norway. For energy use per capita, the EKC is only observed for Denmark, while improvements are needed for the other countries. Norway is an outlier, in comparison with the other Nordic countries, hence the country should implement more stringent climate change mitigation policies to reduce its emissions. Overall, the research suggests that the Nordic countries, particularly Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, can provide valuable lessons for national, regional, and global low carbon energy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: About 72 million households in rural India do not have access to electricity and rely primarily on traditional biofuels. This research investigates how rural electrification could be achieved in India using different energy sources and what the effects for climate change mitigation could be. We use the Regional Energy Model (REM) to develop scenarios for rural electrification for the period 2005–2030 and to assess the effects on greenhouse gas emissions, primary energy use and costs. We compare the business-as-usual scenario (BAU) with different electrification scenarios based on electricity from renewable energy, diesel and the grid. Our results indicate that diesel systems tend to have the highest CO2 emissions, followed by grid systems. Rural electrification with primarily renewable energy-based end-uses could save up to 99% of total CO2 emissions and 35% of primary energy use in 2030 compared to BAU. Our research indicates that electrification with decentralised diesel systems is likely to be the most expensive option. Rural electrification with renewable energy tends to be the most cost-effective option when end-uses are predominantly based on renewable energy, but turns out to be more costly than grid extensions when electric end-use devices are predominantly used. This research therefore elaborates whether renewable energy is a viable option for rural electrification and climate change mitigation in rural India and gives policy recommendations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article investigates the potential of renewable and low-carbon fuel production for the maritime shipping sector, using Sweden as a case in focus. Techno-economic modelling and socio-technical transition studies are combined to explore the conditions, opportunities and barriers to decarbonising the maritime shipping industry. A set of scenarios have been developed considering demand assumptions and potential instruments such as carbon price, energy tax, and blending mandate. The study finds that there are opportunities for decarbonising the maritime shipping industry by using renewable marine fuels such as advanced biofuels (e.g., biomethanol), electrofuels (e.g., e-methanol) and hydrogen. Sweden has tremendous resource potential for bio-based and hydrogen-based renewable liquid fuel production. In the evaluated system boundary, biomethanol presents the cheapest technology option while e-ammonia is the most expensive one. Green electricity plays an important role in the decarbonisation of the maritime sector. The results of the supply chain optimisation identify the location sites and technology in Sweden as well as the trade flows to bring the fuels to where the bunker facilities are potentially located. Biomethanol and hydrogen-based marine fuels are cost-effective at a carbon price beyond 100 €/tCO 2 and 200 €/tCO 2 respectively. Linking back to the socio-technical transition pathways, the study finds that some shipping companies are in the process of transitioning towards using renewable marine fuels, thereby enabling niche innovations to break through the carbon lock-in and eventually alter the socio-technical regime, while other shipping companies are more resistant. Overall, there is increasing pressure from (inter)national energy and climate policy-making to decarbonise the maritime shipping industry. [Display omitted] • Development of a novel hybrid approach. • Pinpointed potential location sites and technologies for marine fuel production. • Identified a policy mix that supports sustainable marine fuel production. • Hydrogen-based marine fuels are cost-effective at a carbon price beyond 200 €/tCO 2. • Applied socio-technical transition concept to examine changes for fossil-free shipping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Emerging issues from the Bui hydropower project suggest that the experiences of two earlier hydropower projects in Ghana failed to prevent challenges related to resource access and livelihoods. This article examines the nature of the challenges, their causes, why they were not avoided and the role of the Chinese builders. We conducted 43 interviews and 11 focus group discussions and analyzed qualitative data by themes using narrative analysis. Our findings show that the livelihoods of the resettled communities are, on balance, negatively impacted by the construction of the dam. While Chinese dam‐builders played a major role in financing and enabling the dam's construction, the Ghanaian governance arrangements were found to be more important in addressing the livelihood challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower dams have been criticised for their social and environmental implications. There have been attempts to create international social standards for hydropower dam projects, but these standards have had limited impact. This article uses an extended environmental justice framework to make sense of the resettlement and compensation schemes for Indigenous peoples who were resettled for the construction of the Bakun dam in Borneo, East Malaysia. The article therefore analyses the social protection measures designed for the protection of Indigenous peoples and their livelihoods. The case study is based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with local communities, institutional actors in Malaysia, Chinese actors and dam builders. The article concludes that the social protection policies did not protect Indigenous people and their land sufficiently, but it facilitated a commodification process of both land and people. This should also be understood as a colonisation of their land and their cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses patent analyses to compare the knowledge bases of leading wind turbine firms in Asia and Europe. It concentrates on the following three aspects: the trajectories of key technologies, external knowledge networks, and the globalisation of knowledge application. Our analyses suggest that the knowledge bases differ significantly between leading wind turbine firms in Europe and Asia. Europe's leading firms have broader and deeper knowledge bases than their Asian counterparts. In contrast, the leading Chinese firms, with their unidirectional knowledge networks, are highly domestic in orientation with respect to the application of new knowledge. However, Suzlon, the leading Indian firm, has a better knowledge position. While our quantitative analysis validates prior qualitative studies it also brings new insights. The study suggests that European firms are still leaders in this industry, and leading Asian firms are unlikely to create new pathways that will disrupt the incumbents in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]