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Transition to a net-zero energy system provides society with an opportunity to embed justice principles and practices across the energy sector in order to achieve a transition that is not just 'green' but also 'just'. The just transition concept, born out of international trade union movements, takes into account the rights of the workforce and encourages the creation of decent work and quality jobs. It maintains that the burden of climate action should not be borne unequally by one set of workers or communities or any one country. However, the concept today is much broader than its labour and workforce-focussed roots; it encompasses the transition of the whole of society over time from one that is inherently extractive and unsustainable to one that is regenerative and more sustainable. To achieve this broader 'whole of society' transition many stakeholders need to take action. However, there are a range of challenges that impact their capacity to make these justice outcomes happen, and limited accountability mechanisms for supporting delivery. While some of these challenges can be overcome through a change in internal processes, many result from the interactions between different stakeholders, either in driving action or holding organisations to account. To be more ambitious in delivery therefore there is a need to develop cross-organisational and cross-community commitments to take more joined up action and ambition. This Manifesto for Change was developed as the final output from the ALIGN project1 and was developed by bringing together stakeholders from across national and local government, business and industry, trade unions, finance, community organisations and the third sector to hear their ambitions for a just energy transition by 2045. We did this by way of a half-day online workshop held in February 2022 in conjunction with the Just Transition Engagement Team at Scottish Government.

The transition to a net zero energy system provides society with an opportunity to embed energy justice principles and practices across the energy sector in order to achieve a transition which is not just 'green' but also 'just'. The past decade has seen a surge of activity around the topics of energy justice and just transitions in both academic literature and policy priorities. While these investigations and activities have advanced our understanding of both concepts and unearthed potential mechanisms for applying these to policy making a number of key questions remain: What do we mean when we talk about delivering a just transition to net zero or embedding energy justice within the energy system? Who is responsible for operationalising this and ensuring energy justice is embedded in the transition to net zero? Do different stakeholders have different capacities to act? How can those with real power be motivated to create change and held accountable for their actions? This report attempts to address these questions, drawing on a series of 12 in-depth interviews with experts in the topic of energy justice and just transitions (see Appendix 1). The experts are based in academic institutions across the UK, the European Union, the USA, Australia and Norway – with their research spanning their countries of residence as well as Central America and Africa.

The transition to clean energy is one of the UK's five priority areas for COP26. Alongside the potential benefits from creating green energy jobs, transition to a net-zero energy system offers the potential for delivering broader social, political, and economic benefits (Hamilton and Akbar, 2010; Hepburn et al., 2020; Roy et al., 2018; Sovacool et al., 2020). History shows us that socio-economic disruptions associated with transitions tend to amplify inequalities (Sovacool and Brisbois, 2019). It is likely that without intervention, these benefits, and the costs to deliver them, will not be evenly distributed across society, with negative impacts disproportionately affecting those in lower socio-economic and minority groups. Against this backdrop there has been increasing recognition for the need for Energy Justice – to deliver a socially inclusive and equitable net-zero transition (Abram et al., 2020). This growing awareness of the importance of energy justice has created the need for a framework or lens through which policy impact can be explored at the wider system level to help mitigate against unintended consequences. Energy Justice POINTs (Policy Overview and Impacts for Net-zero Transitions) provides a useful and usable framework to help decision makers explore the wide-reaching energy justice implications of their net-zero visions, strategies, and policies. It is based on four tenets of justice: * Distributional – where injustices lie * Recognition – who is affected * Procedural – how injustices can be overcome * Restorative – what we can do to ameliorate past injustices and mitigate against future injustices It also includes an additional four dimensions to take a whole-systems approach to a just transition which has been developed through a review of the literature. In this paper we outline the development of the Energy Justice POINTs framework, discuss how it can be used, and provide a worked example of how the framework could be applied to a specific project. The framework has also been tested by ...

This paper explores the trends, step changes and innovations that could impact the integration of renewable energy into electricity systems, explores interventions that may be required, and identifies key areas for policy makers to consider. A Delphi approach is used to collect, synthesise, and seek consensus across expert viewpoints. Over sixty experts across a range of geographies including the US, Europe, New-Zealand, Australia, Africa, India and China participated. They identified 26 trends, 20 step changes, and 26 innovations that could lead to major shifts in the design, operation, or management of electricity systems. Findings suggest that key challenges are not technological. Instead they are with delivering an aligned vision, supported by institutional structures, to incentivise, facilitate, and de-risk the delivery of a completely different type of energy system. There is a clear role for government and policy to provide a future energy vision and steer on strategic issues to deliver it; to create space for new actors and business models aligned with this vision; and to create an environment where research, development, demonstration and deployment can promote technologies, system integration and business model innovation at a rate commensurate with delivering net-zero electricity systems

This dissertation explores the advocacy for the Christchurch Town Hall that occurred in 2012-2015 after the Canterbury Earthquakes. It frames this advocacy as an instance of collective-action community participation in a heritage decision, and explores the types of heritage values it expressed, particularly social values. The analysis contextualises the advocacy in post-quake Christchurch, and considers its relationship with other developments in local politics, heritage advocacy, and urban activism. In doing so, this dissertation considers how collective action operates as a form of public participation, and the practical implications for understanding and recognising social value. This research draws on studies of practices that underpin social value recognition in formal heritage management. Social value is held by communities outside institutions. Engaging with communities enables institutions to explore the values of specific places, and to realise the potential of activating local connections with heritage places. Such projects can be seen as participatory practices. However, these processes require skills and resources, and may not be appropriate for all places, communities and institutions. However, literature has understudied collective action as a form of community participation in heritage management. All participation processes have nuances of communities, processes, and context, and this dissertation analyses these in one case. The research specifically asked what heritage values (especially social values) were expressed through collective action, what the relationship was with the participation processes, communities, and wider situation that produced them, and the impact on institutional rhetoric and decisions. The research analysed values expressed in representations made to council in support of the Town Hall. It also used documentary sources and interviews with key informants to analyse the advocacy and decision-making processes and their relationships with the wider context and other grassroots activities. The analysis concluded that the values expressed intertwined social and professional values. They were related to the communities and circumstance that produced them, as an advocacy campaign for a civic heritage building from a Western architectural tradition. The advocacy value arguments were one of several factors that impacted the decision. They have had a lasting impact on rhetoric around the Town Hall, as was a heritage-making practice in its own right. This dissertation makes a number of contributions to the discussion of social value and community in heritage. It suggests connections between advocacy and participation perspectives in heritage. It recommends consideration of nuances of communities, context, and place meanings when using heritage advocacy campaigns as evidence of social value. It adds to the literature on heritage advocacy, and offers a focused analysis of one of many heritage debates that occurred in post-quake Christchurch. Ultimately, it encourages practice to actively integrate social and community values and to develop self-reflexive engagement and valuation processes. Despite inherent challenges, participatory processes offer opportunities to diversify understandings of value, co-produce heritage meanings with communities, and empower citizens in democratic processes around the places they live with and love.

As concerns about energy security and green house gas emissions become more pronounces, establishing an energy-efficient low-carbon transport system has increasingly become a priority for businesses, government and communities. This report sets out to discover the range of agents conducting transport initiatives aligned with these goals, and how their actions might relate to more widespread transition of the transport system.

A 'Just Transition' seeks to protect the rights of the workforce throughout transition away from high carbon industries and towards sustainable economic sectors. This includes reskilling where appropriate and a fair distribution of benefits, alongside recognition and participation of affected communities. Drawing on a systematic literature review and a case study delineated by the 38 English Local Enterprise Partnerships we analyse the variety of skills required to support a just transition to more decentralised and smart low carbon energy systems (defined as 'smart local energy systems') in England. We found that more attention is required in assessing skills provision, alongside upskilling the workforce, or risk the transition being unjust. Regional disparities in skills availability could be mitigated through a local skills provision system whereby stakeholders can review training opportunities, identify emergent skill-gaps and leverage investment. In addition, greater devolution to local authorities would enable them to support stakeholders more effectively.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Chapter 1 Finding Ourselves in the Messy Entanglement of Complexity: An Introduction to the Challenges and Opportunities in Social Ecological Systems -- Context in Which We Write the Book -- Why This Book -- Approach Taken in the Book -- Who Is the Book for? -- Structure of the Book and the Function of Each Chapter -- References -- Chapter 2 Engaging with a Social Ecological System: The Swamp -- The Biophysical Setting -- The Social Setting -- Example Narratives About Tarerer/Kelly Swamp -- Scientists -- Farmers -- Artists -- The Gunditjmara -- References -- Chapter 3 A Critical Reflection on Social Ecological Research and Turning to Practice -- Embedded Assumptions in the Language of Social Ecological Systems Research -- Examples of the Difficulty with Language in Practice: Non-linearity -- Critical Reflection for Social Ecological Systems Research -- A New Chapter of Social Ecological Interdisciplinarity -- Bringing Critical Reflection to the Ordering of Knowledge -- Turning Away from the Assumption of Social and Ecological Determinism -- Structure and Function -- Attending to Time in Social Ecological Research -- Centring on Learning and Practice: Turning to an Epistemology of Practice -- References -- Chapter 4 Adaptive Doing: Reimagining Social Ecological Practice -- Adaptive Doing: a Process for Changing and Integrating Knowledge and Practice -- The Agora: a Deliberate Space for Creating Change in Understanding -- Navigating Adaptive Doing: Engaging Process in the Agora -- Phase A-Disrupting the Status Quo: Invoking the Agora -- Phase B-Engaging in the Agora: Critical Reflection and Discussion -- Phase C-Orienting to Understandings of a Shared Concern -- Three Reframing Tools for Fostering Critical Reflection -- Phase D-Returning to Practice: Embracing a Changed Perspective.