The Politics of Electricity Access and Environmental Security in Mozambique

Cotton, Matthew; Kirshner, Joshua; Salite, Daniela

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63654-8_11

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Similarly, the objective of rural electrification is discussed the themes on "community electrification" and "governing electrification"; while the former focuses more on the role of civil society organizations and remote communities in improving energy access (Torero, 2016), especially in the case of last mile connectivity in Latin America, the latter focuses more on the role of the government in electrifying villages, especially in the context of Asia (Zomers and Gaunt, 2010;Derks and Romijn, 2019;Pandyaswargo et al, 2022). Even energy justice is covered by two themes in this subset, with one more inclined toward geographies in the Global North and concerns of affordability (Bartiaux et al, 2018;Evensen et al, 2018;Ozarisoy and Altan, 2021) and the other toward geographies in the Global South and issues of inequity and "politics of access" (Castán Broto et al, 2018;Cotton et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022).…”

Section: Themes In the Policy-related Research On Energy Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brown-out of policy ideas? A bibliometric review and computational text analysis of research on energy access

Goyal,

Howlett

2023

Front. Sustain. Energy Policy

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IntroductionThe target of universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services—key for individual, social, and economic well-being—is unlikely to be achieved by 2030 based on the current trend. Public policy will likely need to play a key role in accelerating progress in this regard. Although perspectives from the field of policy studies can support this effort, to what extent they have been employed in the literature on energy access remains unclear.MethodsThis study analyzed nearly 7,500 publications on energy access through a combination of bibliometric review and computational text analysis of their titles and abstracts to examine whether and how they have engaged with public policy perspectives, specifically, policy process research, policy design studies, and the literature on policy evaluation.ResultsWe discovered 27 themes in the literature on energy access, but public policy was not among them. Subsequently, we identified 23 themes in a new analysis of the 1,751 publications in our original dataset, mentioning “policy” in their title or abstract. However, few of them engaged with public policy, and even those that did comprised a rather small share of the literature. Finally, we extracted phrases pertaining to public policy in this reduced dataset, but found limited mention of terms related to the policy process, policy design, or policy evaluation.DiscussionWhile to some extent this might reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the research on energy access, a manual review of the abstracts of select publications corroborated this finding. Also, it shed light on how the literature has engaged with public policy and helped identify opportunities for broadening and deepening policy relevant research on energy access. We conclude that, despite their relevance to energy access, public policy perspectives have infrequently and unevenly informed existing research on the topic, and call on scholars in both communities to address this gap in the future.

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Section: Themes In the Policy-related Research On Energy Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brown-out of policy ideas? A bibliometric review and computational text analysis of research on energy access

Goyal,

Howlett

2023

Front. Sustain. Energy Policy

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“…Access to electricity is usually measured by the ratio of to the grid-connected beings [25]. However, this yardstick does not reflect the complexity of reality, as the Multi-Tier Framework exemplarily confirms [26].…”

Section: Energy Situation In Informal Settlementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With access to electricity, public institutions and social services have a higher functionality and can be utilized to a greater extent. With the accompanying higher availability and usability of smartphones, residents of ISs have better access to information, online services, education, and communication [25]. The implementation and use of RES can further lead to job creation and revenue gain [39], which can help to address the proportionally high unemployment rate in ISs, which is vital for an improvement of living standards [25,42].…”

Section: Potential Integration Of Renewable Energy Systems To Issmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Enhance Energy Services in Informal Settlements? Qualitative Comparison of Renewable Energy Solutions

2023

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More than half of the urban population of Sub-Saharan Africa lives in informal housing conditions. While urban areas are, in general, characterized by a high electrification rate, residents of informal settlements are still affected by energy poverty, the use of traditional energy sources and unreliable electricity supply. The aim of the study is to give an overview of different renewable-energy-based solutions which are able to improve local energy provision. These are Solar Home Systems, Mini-Grids, and Energy-Hubs. The technologies are compared to another option for improving energy supply, namely Grid Expansion. The analysis is based on 24 Key Performance Indicators, which can be classified into technical, economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions. The selection of indicators is based on the challenges prevalent in informal settlements that impede a comprehensive, sustainable energy supply. The literature-based indices are used to determine which of the four technologies is a suitable solution for minimizing the challenges prevailing in informal settlements. The resulting matrix provides a holistic comparison and serves as a decision aid in selecting the appropriate technology for future projects in informal settlements, depending on local conditions and the needs of the population. The results show that the Energy-Hub is a valid alternative for energy supply improvement in Informal Settlements.

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“…Research within energy justice around electrification specifically (notably Salite et al, 2021;Tarekegne, 2020), shows that electrification planning commonly emphasises techno-economic criteria and the structural constraints to energy infrastructure provision -often failing to provide energy services to those who need it the most, further exacerbating energy access inequalities at a local level and sacrificing the wellbeing of vulnerable communities for the sake of profit maximisation and/or the political prestige associated with large-scale centralised infrastructure provision (e.g. Cotton et al, 2021). The normative dimensions of energy provision concerning the distribution of energy infrastructure and services, the political capacity of vulnerable communities to control energy pricing and electricity access, are matters of just social development policy; and they come to the fore of system planning, regulation, and technological development across the Global South.…”

Section: Introduction -Global Energy Access and Energy Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamics of urban household energy poverty and energy transition in Mozambique

Shenga¹,

Cotton²,

Kirshner³

et al. 2022

PPP

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Among developing nations, Mozambique has set an ambitious target to achieve universal energy access by 2030 and thus meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. By the end of 2024 the government expects to double domestic electricity access to 64 per cent of the population. Yet the quantitative evaluation of electricity access rates belies challenges of energy service affordability, household budgeting, and fuel and technology availability and choice. With growing concern over issues of energy poverty and energy justice for vulnerable low-income communities, this study provides an in-depth qualitative evaluation of the lived experience of energy access and energy poverty in urban Mozambique, through household interviews in the four biggest cities in the country. There are three main findings. First, we find qualitative indicators of energy wellbeing in urban households, however this energy wellbeing is divided politically -with energy service benefits felt most strongly in municipalities governed by the dominant party: Frelimo. Second, sustainable energy transitions in urban households are limited by the low uptake of renewable energy sources. Third, despite the majority having gridconnected electricity access, many urban households continue to use non-renewable fuels (gas and charcoal) for cooking and view renewable sources, such as solar panels, as a short-term energy fix. We argue therefore that greater policy emphasis upon smallscale renewable energy investment, uptake and implementation in urban localities is needed to spur action on sustainable energy poverty alleviation.

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The Politics of Electricity Access and Environmental Security in Mozambique

Abstract: The politics of electricity access and environmental security in Mozambique, in Asif, M. (ed.) Energy and Environmental Security in Developing Countries (Springer, Berlin).

Cited by 9 publications

References 86 publications

Brown-out of policy ideas? A bibliometric review and computational text analysis of research on energy access

Brown-out of policy ideas? A bibliometric review and computational text analysis of research on energy access

How to Enhance Energy Services in Informal Settlements? Qualitative Comparison of Renewable Energy Solutions

The dynamics of urban household energy poverty and energy transition in Mozambique

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