The Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law invites contributions to a special issue on the Energy Justice Framework: Perspectives, Reinterpretation and Implementation in Africa and the Global South. We welcome submissions, particularly from Global South scholars, exploring the concept of energy justice and its framework from multiple situated contexts, together with strategic legal approaches toward its implementation in energy systems.
Background
Energy justice has evolved as an outward-looking framework for understanding justice implications of decisions across energy systems.[1] Injustices manifesting in energy systems tend to exacerbate energy access and poverty challenges, particularly through the legal, policy and regulatory frameworks of different countries. These have led to different interpretations of the concept and its framework by energy scholars from the Global North and South. We note that interpretations provided by energy scholars have contributed to mixed reactions on how the concept is understood and expected to be implemented in energy systems. This is due partly to the failure to take into account different aspects of energy access and poverty challenges underpinned by justice concerns, especially in the way they manifest in different countries.
For example, energy challenges differ in countries in the Global North and South. Countries in the north are often faced with energy poverty linked to unaffordability, while countries in the south have to grapple with the challenges of poor energy access and security before thinking about affordability. Therefore, it is important that the concept is interpreted and implemented from different contexts drawn from energy access and poverty challenges underpinned by justice concerns.
The aim of this special issue is to map out suitable interpretations and implementation of the energy justice concept and framework for Africa and the Global South, particularly through a country-specific context. We anticipate that this will be framed from a point of view that captures the socio-economic challenges faced by countries in the region. Additionally, this special issue will consider intersections of the framework with other energy concepts, whilst examining governance, legal and policy approaches for implementation. The idea is to further map out legal dimensions of the framework, together with how its implementation could be used to achieve justice goals in the operation of energy systems.
[1] Darren McCauley and others, ‘Energy justice in the transition to low carbon systems: Exploring key themes in interdisciplinary research’ (2019) Applied Energy, 229, 233–270; See also Gordon Walker and others, ‘Necessary energy uses and a minimum standard of living in the United Kingdom: Energy justice or escalating expectations’ (2016) 18 Energy Research & Social Science129–138. 2016.
