The Role of Public Participation in Energy Transitions

Ortwin Renn, Frank Ulmer, Anna Deckert, Ortwin Renn, Frank Ulmer, Anna Deckert

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780128195666
• Topic: Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Subtopic: Wirtschaftstheorie

The Role of Public Participation in Energy Transitions provides a conceptual and empirical approach to stakeholder and citizen involvement in the ongoing energy transition conversation, focusing on projects surrounding energy conversion and efficiency, reducing energy demand, and using new forms of renewable energy sources. Sections review and contrast different approaches to citizen involvement, discuss the challenges of inclusive participation in complex energy policymaking, and provide conceptual foundations for the empirical case studies that constitute the second part of the book.

The book is a valuable resource for academics in the field of energy planning and policymaking, as well as practitioners in energy governance, energy and urban planners and participation specialists.

• Explains both key concepts in public participation and involvement, along with empirical results gained in implementing these concepts
• Links theoretical knowledge with conceptual and real-life applications in the energy sector
• Instructs energy planners in how to improve planning and transformation processes by using inclusive governance methods
• Contains insights from case studies in the fully transitioned German system that provide an empirical basis for action for energy policymakers worldwide

Chapter 1

Introduction

Ortwin Renn¹, Frank Ulmer² and Anna Deckert², ¹Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Berliner Strasse, Potsdam, Germany, ²Dialogik Non-profit Institute for Communication and cooperation research, Stuttgart, Germany

Abstract

As an introduction the editors explain their understanding of participation as an instrument that can lead to increased acceptance of the local infrastructure, new consumption or “prosumption” patterns, and improved planning. The main questions and lines of argument of this book are described as follows: How should public input and public involvement be designed, structured, and organized so that it facilitates the transition toward a more sustainable energy future? This book strives for both a clear theoretical foundation and sufficient empirical evidence for how generic concepts of participation can be used to design and evaluate public involvement and participation programs.

Keywords

Local infrastructure; consumption; public involvement; stakeholder; sustainability; participation

Outline

Outline

• Introduction 1
• References 5

Traditional energy policy making is largely characterized by a technocratic vision in which the technical–natural sciences develop physically operational solutions for eminent problems, such as climate change or pollution from coal combustion. These blueprints of what works are then applied as a normative guidance for how society should design the appropriate policies to ensure their implementation. The technocratic model of energy supply is based on the ideal of objective knowledge about how to transform physical resources into energy services and how to make this transformation efficient, reliable and sustainable, and resilient. This concept of energy policy making is problematic for two reasons (Meyer, 2001: 165): First, the choice of what people need is already culturally influenced. The postulated assumptions about correlations between use of the physical resources, conversion technologies, and the utilization of energy services for human purposes are determined by preconceived cultural frames, which require their own explanation and questioning. Second the supposed chain of knowledge and management falls short. Knowledge alone does not change behavior. Although knowledge is a prerequisite for rational action, it does not replace the necessity of having normative priorities for weighing the consequences for the biophysical environment against other positive or negative impacts on the economy and society. At the same time, the balancing of these processes itself is dependent on social preferences. For example, the request to reduce the amount of fossil fuels for energy conversion can be met by a set of alternative actions: replace fossil fuels by renewable energy sources, make your energy system more efficient to produce more energy service from each unit of primary energy, or reduce consumption by demanding less energy services such as heat or power. Which of these three options or their combination will be implemented is not a question of technical feasibility not even economic optimization but rather of political preferences and public acceptance.

Energy policies need to be seen as being embedded in a socio-technical system in which technical, economic, political, and social factors interact (Renn, 2014). From a research perspective, studies on energy transformations need to include the consequences of human behavior on the choice of energy technologies and the everyday use of energy systems as well as the reflexive perception, assessment, and evaluation of human behavior when experiencing transformations of energy systems (Rip, 2006: 92f). Such an integrative approach includes five key objectives (see Dunlap et al., 1994; Becker et al., 2001; Renn, 2014):

• • To gain systematic understanding of the processes of how citizens form preferences and positions about energy technologies and policies.
• • To gain better knowledge of processes and procedures, that shape or enlighten the social discourse(s) about the right balance between different options of meeting energy service demand and, consequently, about ethically justifiable degrees of interventions into the natural environment on the basis of comprehensible and politically legitimate criteria.
• • To investigate institutional processes and organizational structures that review, revise, and regulate individual and collective energy-related decisions.
• • To identify political processes of how to include consumers and citizens in the decision-making processes about collectively binding energy policies.
• • To investigate not only obstacles and barriers but also opportunities and incentives, which are associated with the inclusion of stakeholders and citizens not only in the design phase but also in the implementation of energy policies.

For this socio-technical perspective the need for participatory and inclusive policy making is crucial (Renn, 2008: 273ff; Scholz, 2011: 388ff). The definition of the energy problems, the question of which values to include, and the selection of methods used to consider and evaluate solutions all presuppose normative assumptions that need to be aligned to the preferences and values of those who will be affected. These requirements cannot be derived legitimately from the natural or technical sciences but result from social discourse. In this respect energy transformations rely on the involvement of affected persons and groups in the process of system selection and governance.

More than ever, discursive processes are at the center of a rational, integrative, and sustainable energy transformation. A discourse without a systematic knowledge base remains only superficial, and a discourse that hides the normative quality of the courses of action being considered violates the principles of democracy and individual freedom. In this respect all discursive processes must be measured by how they have conducted the integration of knowledge, values, and preferences.

The conditions and challenges for including stakeholders and the public at large for making energy system transformation successful differ among the European countries. This applies to the social and cultural conditions—for example, the acceptance of nuclear energy in France as opposed to Germany. But it also applies to the geographical conditions—for example, the abundant supply of hydropower in Norway as opposed to fewer hydropower options in other European countries. Coping with these regionally different challenges requires tailor-made solutions. However, all democratic and pluralist countries demand processes of legitimization based on public approval and at least some degree of codetermination (Naz and Leggewie, 2019). The main objective of this book is to first develop a systemic approach to participation and involvement and apply these generic principles and concepts to a set of case studies that all relate to the German energy transformation (Energiewende).

The challenges of implementing the energy system transformation in Germany are primarily characterized by a high per capita energy consumption; a strong dependency on fossil fuels on electricity, heat, and mobility; and the political framework conditions of a corporatist political culture. In concrete terms not only the discussions on the energy system transformation in Germany currently revolve around wind power, photovoltaic systems, and grid expansion, but also the level of consumption, successful system integration, and energy efficiency are major topics of the debate. This makes energy policy making rather complex and sophisticated.

The state of the energy system transformation in 2020 is sobering. Only about 15% of primary energy consumption in Germany is covered by renewable energies (Umweltbundesamt (UBA), 2019). At the same time, the demand for energy services in Germany continues to rise. This is probably the result of digitalization and a general rise in consumption levels in almost all areas of life (passenger numbers in air travel, car registrations, living space per capita, etc.).

Although Germany is one of the most advanced countries in expanding wind and solar energy, the speed of transformation is not sufficient to reduce the amount of fossil fuels significantly. The population is also divided: Many demand more rigid climate protection measures, including those that may change personal behavioral patterns (such as living without a car in urban areas), while others remain convinced that their personal lifestyle does not need to change.

This anthology assumes that in a plural and democratic society, public and stakeholder participation is an important if not crucial way of getting to broadly accepted energy policies and required changes in personal lifestyle. Participation in this book is regarded as an instrument that can lead both to increased acceptance of the local infrastructure and to new consumption patterns. However, it is not obvious of how to design effective and fair involvement processes and how to link scientific expertise with public values and preferences. This book will provide not only some theoretical insights but also many practical examples of how participation is designed and implemented in the present intensive phase of the German energy transition. It is well understood that the concrete participation projects described in this book cannot serve as recipes for similar projects in other countries and political cultures, but many conceptual approaches and procedures are certainly transferable to similar situations in other countries.

The basic message of this entire book is that major energy transitions toward more renewable energy sources and toward more energy conservation depend on the support of major stakeholders and the affected public(s). However, the methods and formats of how to include stakeholders and the affected public vary in the literature, and the empirical evidence is full of ambiguities. This book strives for both a clear theoretical foundation and sufficient empirical evidence for how generic concepts of participation can be used to design and evaluate public involvement and participation programs. This book also touches upon new institutional reforms of democratic decision-making as they appear as evolving under the light of public involvement. How should public input and public involvement be designed, structured, and organized so that it facilitates the transition toward a more sustainable energy future?

This book serves two main purposes: First it provides a conceptual approach to stakeholder and citizen involvement in a concrete transformation process, that is, replacing or reducing fossil fuel by increasing the efficiency of energy conversion, decrease of energy demand (sufficiency), and inclusion of renewable energy sources. These concepts form the basis for the empirical case studies that are described in the second part of this book, where concrete participation and involvement projects are outlined—predominantly from Germany since this country is one of the world’s front-runners in planning to transform its energy system.

In Chapter 2, History of the energy transition in Germany: from the 1950s to 2019, Ortwin Renn and Jonathan Paul Marshall expound the emergence of energy policies in Germany, highlighting the major transitions over the last five decades. Following this introduction to the German context, Ortwin Renn und Pia-Johanna Schweizer introduce the six approaches to inclusive governance, their foundations, applications and lessons learned (Chapter 3: Inclusive governance for energy policy making: conceptual foundations, applications, and lessons learned). In Chapter 4, Energy transition and civic engagement, Radtke et al. illustrate how civic engagement in the context of the German Energiewende occurs in two rather opposite directions: self-organized groups, who run their own renewable energy plants and support the energy transition, and grassroots initiatives, who campaign against planned infrastructure for renewables. Subsequently Tom Morton et al. explore the social and political processes of leaving coal and their relationships to renewable transition in Chapter 5, From coal to renewables: changing socio-ecological relations of energy in India, Australia, and Germany. Andreas Klinke (Chapter 6: Cosmopolitan governance for sustainable global energy transformation: democratic, participatory-deliberative, and multilayered) broadens the perspective when describing an alternative approach to a cosmopolitan, democratic governance, which he believes is necessary to tackle the global challenge of energy transformation.

After exploring the theoretical and conceptual approaches to part...