Phasing out coal, sustaining coal communities? Living with technological decline in sustainability pathways

Johnstone, Philip; Hielscher, Sabine

doi:10.1016/j.exis.2017.06.002

Cited by 61 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…As in Denmark and to a lesser extent Germany, policies aimed at lessening the impact of the decline of fossil fuels through long-term governmental support for industry as green industrial policy seems to have been a critical yet overlooked factor in facilitating disruption in the energy system . The social effects of rapid departures from fossil fuel based economic activity without green industrial policy and relying more on the market rather than state as coordinator of employment opportunities is highlighted by the lasting poverty, and social issues still in existence in former coal mining regions of the UK (Foden et al, 2014;Johnstone and Hielscher, 2017). Thus, green industrial policy can be important in managing the negative social sustainability consequences of the energy disruption.…”

Section: How Does Green Industrial Policy Link To Energy Disruption?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

Johnstone

Kivimaa

2018

Energy Research & Social Science

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In this perspective article, we critically explore 'disruption' in relation to sustainability transitions in the energy sector. Recognising significant ambiguity associated with the term, we seek to answer the question: What use has 'disruption' for understanding and promoting change towards low carbon energy futures. First, we outline that different understandings and dimensions of 'system disruption' exist with different linkages to institutional and policy change. This variety points out a need to research in more detail the particular effects of differing low-carbon innovations in terms of their disruptive consequences for whole socio-technical systems. Thus, disruption can be utilised as a useful conceptual tool for interrogating in more detail the ways in which energy systems are changing in particular contexts. Second, we reflect on the relationship between 'green industrial policy' and disruption. In some contexts 'energy disruption' has been facilitated by green industrial policy, and it would seem that the profound changes said to be on the horizon in terms of disruption are also a motivator of green industrial policy. New industrial policy can be an important way in which the negative consequences of disruptive change, such as job losses, can be managed and facilitated. 1. The 'Disruption' of everything: just another buzzword? Discussions of 'disruption' have gained increasing traction in policy (European Commission, 2014; Innovate UK, 2017) and academia (e.g Nagy et al., 2015; Sioshani, 2017) alike. The term 'disruptive technology' was initially coined in 1995 (Bower and Christensen, 1995; Christensen and Rosenbloom, 1995) and mainly used in the subsequent years to discuss the renewal of firms in the context of business and organisational studies. However, recently the term has become more prolific than ever, spurred on by apparent momentous changes in a range of sectors. These often interconnected developments include automation in transport, 3D printing, digitalisation, the 'gig economy' and 'smart' energy. Definitions have been used further afield to discuss changes in education and health care (Horn and Staker, 2015; Hwang and Christensen, 2008). In an important online article for the New Yorker, Lepore (2014) cynically observed that today "everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted" and argued that "every era has a theory of rising and falling, of growth and decay…our era has disruption". The ubiquity of the term is seen by many as being problematic, with suggestions that the theory of disruption may be "dead wrong" (Kitroeff, 2015) due to its vagueness and lack of definitional clarity, and that it is time to "retire" disruption, "Silicon valley's emptiest buzzword" (Alexander, 2016). King and Baatartogtokh, (2015) inquire 'how useful is a theory of disruption'?

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Section: How Does Green Industrial Policy Link To Energy Disruption?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

Johnstone

Kivimaa

2018

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…Some scholars argue that just transition plans should include retraining fossil fuel workers such as coal miners for alternate jobs (Kammen et al 2004, Miller et al 2013, Louie and Pearce 2016, Abraham 2017, Johnstone and Hielscher 2017. These alternate job options for coal miners may vary across a wide range of economic sectors, such as manufacturing or services, and are not limited to only renewable energy (RE) jobs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar has greater techno-economic resource suitability than wind for replacing coal mining jobs

Pai

Zerriffi

Jewell

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Coal mining directly employs over 7 million workers and benefits millions more through indirect jobs. However, to meet the 1.5°C global climate target, coal's share in global energy supply should decline between 73% and 97% by 2050. But what will happen to coal miners as coal jobs disappear ? Answering this question is necessary to ensure a just transition and to ensure that politically powerful coal mining interests do not impede energy transitions. Some suggest that coal miners can transition to renewable jobs. However, prior research has not investigated the potential for renewable jobs to replace 'local' coal mining jobs. Historic analyses of coal industry declines show that coal miners do not migrate when they lose their jobs. By focusing on China, India, the US, and Australia, which represent 70% of global coal production, we investigate: (1) the local solar and wind capacity required in each coal mining area to enable all coal miners to transition to solar/wind jobs; (2) whether there are suitable solar and wind power resources in coal mining areas in order to install solar/wind plants and create those jobs; and (3) the scale of renewables deployment required to transition coal miners in areas suitable for solar/wind power. We find that with the exception of the US, several GWs of solar or wind capacity would be required in each coal mining area to transition all coal miners to solar/wind jobs. Moreover, while solar has more resource suitability than wind in coal mining areas, these resources are not available everywhere. In China, the country with the largest coal mining workforce, only 29% of coal mining areas are suitable for solar power. In all four countries, less than 7% of coal mining areas have suitable wind resources. Further, countries would have to scale-up their current solar capacity significantly to transition coal miners who work in areas suitable for solar development.

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“…Avelino [37] argues that the existence of political processes within TM cannot be denied; for example, this is shown by the efforts of stakeholders to have and be part of future development pathways. Johnstone and Hielscher [40] added that phasing out non-sustainable practices are part of TM, and Bosman et al [41] highlight that the new positioning of incumbent stakeholders in new regimes must be considered. Consequently, both the creation of sustainable transition pathways together with destabilizing unsustainable practices must be addressed.…”

Section: Transition Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis for Transition Management in Energy Communities

et al. 2021

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Energy communities (ECs) play a role in the transition towards a low-carbon economy by 2050 and receive increasing attention from stakeholders within the energy sector. To foster ECs, transition management (TM) is a promising managerial approach to steer and guide the transition towards more sustainable practices. However, TM lacks a consistent methodology that addresses the criticism of the current application. To investigate what a structured and replicable TM approach for ECs can look like, this paper applies the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA), a participative multi-criteria decision method, to a case study EC in the Netherlands involving various stakeholders. The impact of the application on power relations, the political sphere, sustainability conceptualization, guidance of transitions, and representation was analyzed. MAMCA was found useful for multi-stakeholder settings seen in potential ECs, offering a unifying methodology for the practical application of TM. In the EC setting, the added value of MAMCA within TM lies more in the social representation, insight into stakeholder viewpoints, and communication rather than in final decision-making.

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Phasing out coal, sustaining coal communities? Living with technological decline in sustainability pathways

Cited by 61 publications

References 22 publications

Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

Solar has greater techno-economic resource suitability than wind for replacing coal mining jobs

Application of Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis for Transition Management in Energy Communities

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