TY - JOUR

T1 - Finance and Justice in Low-Carbon Energy Transitions

AU - Hall, Stephen

AU - Roelich, Katy E.

AU - Davis, Mark E.

AU - Holstenkamp, Lars

N1 - Funding Information: Part of this work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant Ref: EP/N029488/1. This work was also supported by a grant issued by Friends Provident Foundation through their ‘Building Resilient Economies’ programme. http://www.friendsprovidentfoundation.org/grants/projects/financial-innovation-today-towards-economic-resilience-the-bauman-institute-part-of-the-university-of-leeds/ . The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments which illuminated several lines of enquiry which substantially strengthened this work. Publisher Copyright: © 2018

PY - 2018/7/15

Y1 - 2018/7/15

N2 - Up to $61trillion of power systems investment is needed to fulfil the Paris Agreement. The mobilisation of so much capital is a huge challenge. As such, energy policy is changing to meet the needs of commercial finance. However, very little has been done to question the justice implications of this capital mobilisation, and what alternatives there are to commercially-oriented finance for low carbon energy systems. This paper uses a comparative analysis of two developed economies to explore how ‘alternative’ forms of finance operate in each nation’s energy investment landscape. We find alternative finance is often set in opposition to commercial capital. Alternative finance in both nations is motivated by financial justice outcomes that are poorly understood in current energy policy. Our findings suggest that 6 principles are key to ‘just’ energy finance: affordability, good governance, due process, intra-generational equity, spatial equity, and financial resilience. Energy policy that seeks to mobilise capital, should take account of all six principles.

AB - Up to $61trillion of power systems investment is needed to fulfil the Paris Agreement. The mobilisation of so much capital is a huge challenge. As such, energy policy is changing to meet the needs of commercial finance. However, very little has been done to question the justice implications of this capital mobilisation, and what alternatives there are to commercially-oriented finance for low carbon energy systems. This paper uses a comparative analysis of two developed economies to explore how ‘alternative’ forms of finance operate in each nation’s energy investment landscape. We find alternative finance is often set in opposition to commercial capital. Alternative finance in both nations is motivated by financial justice outcomes that are poorly understood in current energy policy. Our findings suggest that 6 principles are key to ‘just’ energy finance: affordability, good governance, due process, intra-generational equity, spatial equity, and financial resilience. Energy policy that seeks to mobilise capital, should take account of all six principles.

KW - Management studies

KW - Alternative Finanzierungsformen

KW - Ethisches Investment

KW - Energy research

KW - Bürgerenergie

KW - Energiewende

KW - Finanzierung

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045659232&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/065eb351-f2a0-3950-8978-5cb16cfca6a1/

U2 - 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.04.007

DO - 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.04.007

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 222

SP - 772

EP - 780

JO - Applied Energy

JF - Applied Energy

SN - 0306-2619

IS - July 2018

ER -