‘Energy transitions are
about who benefits and who is put at risk. They are about the power of
regulatory institutions, the structure of markets, and the distribution of
wealth. And they are about how people of all sorts work and live.’ So said the introductory
paper in a special issue of the journal Science as Culture on energy
transitions. It went on: ‘It is
not simply a question of whether to build infrastructure for renewable energy
systems but rather how to approach such a task and what forms of intertwined
social, economic, political, and technological arrangements get built and/or
evolve to produce new forms of energy production and consumption’.
It
argued that ‘Traditionally,
energy transitions have been understood in terms of fuel sources, such as the
transition from wood to coal, coal to oil, or oil to renewables. Viewed from a
socio-technological systems perspective, this framing of energy transitions
looks naıve at best. On one hand, transitions in fuels are inevitably
accompanied by widespread social, economic, and political transformations that
must also be factored into assessments of energy change. Even more importantly,
neither fuels nor their associated technologies of extraction, generation, and
use determine the social and economic forms that energy systems take over time.
Rather, these technologies are interpretively flexible, like all technologies,
and can be shaped into a range of diverse energy systems. Thus, the key choices
involved in energy transitions are not so much between different fuels but
between different forms of social, economic, and political arrangements built
in combination with new energy technologies. In other words, the challenge is
not simply what fuel to use but how to organize a new energy system around that
fuel’. Clark A. Miller, Alastair Iles
& Christopher
F. Jones Science As Culture Forum On Energy
Transitions, Science As Culture ,Vol. 22,
Issue 2, 2013: www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/22/2#.VSp3DIX1uv8
Taking
that on board, in a new Palgrave Pivot e-book ‘Green Energy Futures: A Big Change for the Good’, I have tried to map out the technical
options ahead and their likely social and economic implications. I start with
the assumption that the use of fossil fuels has to be halted, and probably long
before this is forced on us by the inevitable ultimate depletion of these
resources. That will involve a major change- over 80% of the energy used
globally comes from these sources, coal, oil and gas, used for heating,
electricity production, and to power vehicles. The book asks - can their use be phased out? With the
divestment movement catching on and fossil companies worried out the economic
viability of their fossil investment as governments tighten up emission
regulations, change is underway.
But what will replace fossil fuel?
In the book I
look at whether nuclear power can play a role, or whether there is there a way
forward using renewable energy sources and energy efficiency initiatives to cut
emissions from fossil fuels while avoiding nuclear power. Unsurprisingly I
conclude that nuclear is unlikely to have much of a role in future, and argue
that the pro and anti nuclear debate has absorbed too
much time and energy over the years, to the detriment of what it sees as a more
relevant, interesting and increasingly urgent debate over what sort of
renewable/efficiency mix we need. That is my main focus in the rest of the
book, which explores the implications of shifting to greener, cleaner
energy sources. It argues there is
no one green future. There is a range of possible options of various types and
scales: we need to choose amongst them. And drawing heavily on material from
Renew, the newsletter I edit, it offers an overview of the technical, social,
economic and environmental issues
to help, exploring what the technological mix might
be, and what choices might be available.
The Science As Culture paper called for ‘robust empirical and
theoretical inquiries into what current and future energy changes will mean for
diverse groups of people across the planet’.
I may not have achieved that, since my focus is more on the technological
choices than on the harder to define social choices, but I hope I have made a
start. http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/green-energy-futures-david-elliott/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781137584427
It is certainly
becoming urgent to make some decisions. And so it is good to see that the big
fossil companies are being put under pressure to change. The bottom line will
always no doubt be economics, but moral pressure also has a place. In that
context, with the fossil ‘divestment’ movement making waves around the world,
involving pension funds Universities, charities and churches, it is interesting
that Pope Francis has spoken out on climate change, and that a conference of
Islamic religious leaders has done so too.
The Pope’s views
actually paralleled some of the analysis in the Science As Culture paper. In
his papal encyclical he said ‘We
have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a
framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social
possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful
groups. Decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality decisions about
the kind of society we want to build’. The Islamic Climate Declaration was more specific and
called on the people of all nations and their leaders to commit to ‘100 %
renewable energy and/or a zero emissions strategy as early as possible, to
mitigate the environmental impact of their activities’. That of course might be taken to include
nuclear, but it goes on to call for investment ‘in decentralized renewable
energy, which is the best way to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable
development’.
http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-global-climate-change
Well given that,
maybe Iran, and other Middle Eastern states, might even take note of the
proposal by Amory Lovins for a post-nuclear switch to
renewables: www.rmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Library/IransInvisibleOpportunity
We can but hope! Meanwhile, globally,
there is plenty to do in terms of selecting the right sustainable energy mix
for the future, and ensuring that it gets adopted widely.
