Energy and Climate Policy – Lecture 9 Energy access, justice, and transition

Sample analytic questions

The barriers and policies to facilitate energy access?
What is Justice40? And what investments are included?
What are the typical energy injustice and how to address them?
What are the drivers of energy transition?
How should each country think/design/implement its energy transition?
How to frame the role of different technologies in energy transition?
How geo-politics, wars, and pandemic impact the energy in transiton?

Energy poverty and SDG

Energy access and HDI

Energy poverty and gender equity

Women and kids spend more time collecting wood fuel
Women spend more time on cooking without clean fuel/energy
Women bear more burden on indoor air pollution
Women have less oportunity for development

Energy ladder

Sustainable energy for all

Progress on universal access to electricity

Share of population with clean cooking fuel

China’s electricity for all

Energy justice

The goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system, while also remediating social, economic, and health burdens on those disproportionately harmed by the energy system.

–Initiative for Energy Justice, 2019

EJ conceptual questions

Rooftop solar by race and ethnicity

The energy equity gap

Justice 40

Just transition framework

Energy, environmental, climate justice

Energy	Environmental	Climate
Energy supply/demand	Environment burden/benefits	Climate impact/benefits

Common Questions:
Who bears the burden? Who harvests the benefits? Do we know the injustice? Can people involve in the decision proceses? How to compensate?

NYS CLCPA disadvantaged communities (DACs)

How has energy use changed in the U.S.

RE > coal: a milestone

U.S. power-sector half-way to zero

Soft path vs. hard path

Central, large scale, incresing supply/demand
Fossil, nuclear

Flexible, resilient, sustainable, and benign
Renewable energy, energy efficiency, matching in scale and quality to the end use need

Drivers of energy transition

Demand
Supply
Climate change
Environmental pollution
Energy security
Economics

100% reneables: a debate

100% renewables (wind, water, solar) for all purposes?

Resources, technology, economic ready
Huge benefits

100% renewable not viable/necesssary?

Modeling errors
Implausible assumptions
Need better modeling

Energy transition is difficult, broad technology portfolio is needed

Changing perspectives of renewables

Energy Transition: The German Energiewende

Fighting climate change
Reducing energy imports
Stimulating technology innovation and the green economy
Reducing and eliminating the risks of nuclear power
Energy security
Strengthening local economies and providing social justice

Germany: end of nuclear

The last three nuclear power plants in Germany were shut down on April 15, 2023

UK: end of coal

The last coal power plants in UK, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, were shut down on September 30, 2024

The U.S.: net zero America

U.S.: NDC, IRA, and beyond

Denmark: power to X

China: the scale and scope

China: renewable expansion

China: phasing out coal

Phasing out coal yields huge (water savings, avoided pre-matual death, and health) co-benefits, however, need to address employment impact and welfare redistribution

China: Fewer than 15% of coal power workers transition to green jobs

A coal power worker needs to travel 194 (178–242) km on average to access a green job.
Only 11%–14% of existing coal power workers will transition to green jobs by 2060.

Bazil: role of hydro and biofuel

Africa: the fogotten billion

Ukraine crisis: an accerlerator?

Impact to emissions

Summary

Electricity/energy access is fundamental to other modern services: education, health, and information
Energy access also has gender equity, health cobenefits, and other implications
Energy justice is important to achieve just transition
An reflection on our approaches to energy justice
Diverse factors that drive energy transition
Common and differentiated solutions to energy
Leverage the advantages
Addressing uncertainties: geopolitics, wars, pandemic, and more

References

Alstone, Peter, Dimitry Gershenson, and Daniel M Kammen. 2015. “Decentralized Energy Systems for Clean Electricity Access.” Nature Climate Change 5 (4): 305–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2512.

Clack, Christopher T. M., Staffan A. Qvist, Jay Apt, Morgan Bazilian, Adam R. Brandt, Ken Caldeira, Steven J. Davis, et al. 2017. “Evaluation of a Proposal for Reliable Low-Cost Grid Power with 100% Wind, Water, and Solar.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June, 201610381. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1610381114.

Cong, Shuchen, Destenie Nock, Yueming Lucy Qiu, and Bo Xing. 2022. “Unveiling Hidden Energy Poverty Using the Energy Equity Gap.” Nature Communications 13 (1): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30146-5.

Cui, Ryna Yiyun, Nathan Hultman, Diyang Cui, Haewon McJeon, Sha Yu, Morgan R Edwards, Arijit Sen, et al. 2021. “A Plant-by-Plant Strategy for High-Ambition Coal Power Phaseout in China.” Nature Communications 12 (1): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21786-0.

He, Gang, Jiang Lin, Ying Zhang, Wenhua Zhang, Guilherme Larangeira, Chao Zhang, Wei Peng, Manzhi Liu, and Fuqiang Yang. 2020. “Enabling a Rapid and Just Transition Away from Coal in China.” One Earth 3 (2): 187–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.07.012.

He, G., and D. G. Victor. 2017. “Experiences and Lessons from China’s Success in Providing Electricity for All.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 122: 335–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.03.011.

Jacobson, Mark Z., Mark A. Delucchi, Mary A. Cameron, and Bethany A. Frew. 2015. “Low-Cost Solution to the Grid Reliability Problem with 100% Penetration of Intermittent Wind, Water, and Solar for All Purposes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (49): 15060–65. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510028112.

Jenkins, Kirsten, Darren McCauley, Raphael Heffron, Hannes Stephan, and Robert Rehner. 2016. “Energy Justice: A Conceptual Review.” Energy Research & Social Science 11: 174–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2015.10.004.

Lovins, Amory B. 1976. “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken.” Foreign Affairs 55: 65. https://rmi.org/insight/energy-strategy-the-road-not-taken.

Mulugetta, Yacob, Youba Sokona, Philipp A Trotter, Samuel Fankhauser, Jessica Omukuti, Lucas Somavilla Croxatto, Bjarne Steffen, et al. 2022. “Africa Needs Context-Relevant Evidence to Shape Its Clean Energy Future.” Nature Energy, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01152-0.

Sunter, Deborah A, Sergio Castellanos, and Daniel M Kammen. 2019. “Disparities in Rooftop Photovoltaics Deployment in the United States by Race and Ethnicity.” Nature Sustainability 2 (1): 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0204-z.

Wu, Huihuang, Junfeng Liu, Xiurong Hu, Gang He, Yuhan Zhou, Xian Wang, Ying Liu, Jianmin Ma, and Shu Tao. 2024. “Fewer Than 15% of Coal Power Plant Workers in China Can Easily Shift to Green Jobs by 2060.” One Earth, November. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.10.006.