Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions: Practices of legitimation and accountable governance

Description

This open access book reframes sustainable energy transitions as being a matter of resolving accountability crises. It demonstrates how the empirical study of several practices of legitimation can analytically deconstruct energy transitions, and presents a typology of these practices to help determine whether energy transitions contribute to sustainability. The real-world challenge of climate change requires sustainable energy transitions. This presents a crisis of accountability legitimated through situated practices in a wide range of cases including: solar energy transitions in Portugal, urban energy transitions in Germany, forestland conflicts in Indonesia, urban carbon emission targets in Norway, transport electrification in the Nordic region, and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. By synthesising these cases, chapters identify various dimensions wherein practices of legitimation construct specific accountability relations. This book deftly illustrates the value of an analytical approach focused on accountable governance to enable sustainable energy transitions. It will be of great use to both academics and practitioners working in the field of energy transitions. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Reframing Energy Transitions as Resolving Accountability Crises (Siddharth Sareen)....Pages 3-14 A Typology of Practices of Legitimation to Categorise Accountability Relations (Siddharth Sareen)....Pages 15-31 Front Matter ....Pages 33-33 Five Easy Pieces: Legitimation at Work in Cases Related to Energy Transitions (Siddharth Sareen)....Pages 35-39 Historicising Accountability: Berlin’s Energy Transitions (Timothy Moss)....Pages 41-52 A Few Reflections on Accountability (Christian Lund)....Pages 53-62 Do Climate Targets Matter? The Accountability of Target-setting in Urban Climate and Energy Policy (Håvard Haarstad)....Pages 63-72 Governance and Legitimation in the Transition to Nordic Electric Mobility (Benjamin Sovacool)....Pages 73-88 Accountability and the Regulation of Legitimacy: Biodiversity Conservation and Energy Extraction in the American West (Steven Wolf)....Pages 89-102 Front Matter ....Pages 103-103 Practices of Legitimation and Accountability Crises in a Range of Energy Transitions (Siddharth Sareen)....Pages 105-116 Conclusion: Legitimation and Accountability in Energy Transitions Research (Siddharth Sareen, Timothy Moss, Christian Lund, Håvard Haarstad, Benjamin Sovacool, Steven Wolf)....Pages 117-135 Back Matter ....Pages 137-168