Geographies of Environment and Sustainability

• Energy geography is defined as “the study of energy development, transportation, markets or use patterns and their determinants form a spatial, regional or resource management perspective” – Solomon et al (2004:831)
• Readings for the multi-level perspective:

  • Bridge, et al, 2018
  • Calvert, 2016
  • Bridge, et al, 2013
  • Geels, et al, 2017
• Readings for Unconventional Fossil Fuels:

  • Bridge, et al, 2018
  • Zimmerer, 2011
• Readings for how Geography is important to energy

  • Bridge, et al, 2018
  • Zimmerer, 2011
  • Calvert, 2016
  • Bridge, et al, 2013
• People do not relate to energy in an abstract way but instead through specific energy services (heat, transportation etc). Energy is an extremely important component of urbanisation and the infrastructure which makes modern life possible
• Energy materiality is the particular materials which we can use to harness energy (e.g. oil, coal, wood), and the places in which the energy can be harnessed (narrow valleys for hydroelectric dams, uplands for the use of wind). The materiality of renewable energy makes different scales and distribution of energy possible – decentralisation.
• Energy extraction requires the displacement of populations. Communities which remain in place near areas of energy production see landscape destruction, water contamination and livelihood destruction
• Energy justice includes:

  • The distribution of injustices
  • The sections of society which are affected and marginalised in decision-making
  • Work identifying processes for remediation to reveal and reduce injustices
• Energy justice example: the use of nuclear production near indigenous land in the Great Plains of the USA:

  • Indigenous populations have seen evidence of  low-level and long-term radiation exposure, such as cancer, blood diseases
  • Landscapes which indigenous Americans inhabit have also been contaminated beyond use
  • This is due to the uneven distribution of uranium mining in the US
  • Endres (1990)
• Energy is important to issues of:

  • Climate change (energy is responsible for 73% of GHG emissions worldwide)
  • Waste
  • Water Scarcity
  • Environmental Degradation
  • Pollution
• Energy transitions are social transitions – the technical shapes the social and the social shapes the technical, e.g. electric cars dominate our ideas for renewable energy and sustainable life as they fit into our current social structure, rather than planning options like 20-minute neighbourhoods as those would require a completely different way of living
• Spatial Difference is the difference in energy production and use across space
• Without understanding spatial differences, energy transitions cannot be successful. On a global scale:

  • In societies where energy is readily available, transition should be focused on switching to renewables
  • In societies where energy is not abundant, transition should be focused on providing energy in order to reduce poverty and improve living conditions
• Nuclear is a core strategy for some climate action plans however is not possible for all countries. Only 10 out of 52 “newcomer” countries have characteristics that mean they are likely to develop nuclear energy
• Key ideas of energy transition:

  • Location – absolute and relative
  • Landscape – assemblages of natural and cultural features
  • Territoriality – social and political power across space
  • Spatial differentiation – equalisation and differentiation
  • Scaling – technologies/governance
  • Spatial embeddedness and path dependency
• Energy landscapes, e.g. oil fields, wind farms, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, are a product of social processes and come from conflict and negotiation. Transitions require a complete change to the form, function and value of these landscapes.
• Place attachments and emotional engagements with landscapes are important geographic ideas for understanding the response to an energy transition. The Multi-Level Perspective analysis of the German electricity transition misses any sense of emotional and cultural connections to landscapes that shape people’s responses to change and transition.
• Convergence is the erosion of difference – technological diffusion and new consumption norms drive the growing energy intensity and demand.
• Convergence can be seen in the German energy transition by the global adoption of solar power involving Germany, even though Germany does not have a significant solar resource.
• Assumptions about scale are often unacknowledged despite their significance to energy transitions. In Germany, scaling has been seen in rescaling down, from the national grid and concentrated ownership to micro-site generation and distributed ownership. The German government has tried to slow the pace of rescaling by supporting large scale renewable developments
• The Multi-Level Perspective is the idea that transitions occur on several levels of power, from niche innovation to socio-technical landscape, and across several phases of adoption from innovation to widespread use. (Geels et al, 2017)
• Multi-level perpsective for the German electricity transitions:

  • Phase 1 – niche technology in the 1970s and 80s
  • Phase 2/3: Nurturing of renewable technologies in the 1990s with the expansion of onshore wind
  • Phase 3/4: Continued growth from 2005 in renewable technologies, particularly solar
• On a landscape level, this German energy transition began due to the 1970s Oil Crisis (OPEC), and then driven by the Chernobyl and later Fukushima nuclear meltdowns, which drove anti-nuclear sentiment. Additionally, the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall enabled growth. On the regime levels, large energy companies solidified their international dominance, however renewable technologies threaten this, meaning that these larger companies can slow the transition
• The multi-level perspective allows an understanding of temporal processes and the identification of factors which cause some niches to evolve, while other niches do not.