Energy Justice and Equity: The Conceptual and Operational Perspectives

Abstract

The technological advances in energy systems achieved throughout the past decades placed political communities before the question that humankind has never had to ask before: what type of energy supply system do we prefer? The choice over the ways we cover our energy needs has, like every other political question, a moral/justice dimension. This dimension is often framed by three perspectives on “Social Justice”: distributional (are we choosing the system that distributes the costs and benefits of energy use evenly?); procedural (can everybody participate in the political process of selection of the system?); and recognition (can everybody have their say over the way the system is run?). (Jenkins et al. 2016) The panel seeks to advance our understanding of the concept of “Energy Justice” by (1) presenting various ways to operationalize it, (2) discussing its relation to other justice-related concepts such as gender equality, and (3) highlighting the challenges associated with adding the moral/justice dimension into the process of designing energy systems.