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An understanding of the role of energy-related governance systems and the conditions required for a shift towards renewables in developing countries is urgently needed in order to tap into the global potential of low-carbon development. Although renewable energy sources have become technically feasible and economically viable, social and political factors continue to persist as the most critical obstacles for their dissemination. How Power Shapes Energy Transitions in Southeast Asia conceptualizes power for the field of sustainable energy governance. Based on empirical findings from the Philippines and Indonesia, the book develops an analytical approach that incorporates power theory into a multi-level governance framework. The book begins with a profound background on renewable energy development around the world and presents major trends in development cooperation. A power-based multi-level governance approach is introduced that is rooted in development thinking. Examining how coordination and power relations shape the development and dissemination of renewable energy technologies, the book also shows how decentralization affects low carbon development in emerging economies. Sparking debate on the ways in which energy transitions can be triggered and sustained in developing countries, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy development and environmental politics and governance as well as practitioners in development cooperation.

Decarbonization efforts and sustainability transformations represent highly contested socio-political projects. Yet, they often encounter various forms of depoliticization. This article illuminates how a grand socio-ecological challenge like the energy transition gets depoliticized by an unusual suspect, namely Germany's Green Party. Based on a qualitative content analysis of Green Party programs, party conventions, and additional documents published between 1980 and 2021, this article traces how the Green Party has depoliticized the energy transition over time, emphasizing a shift from radical societal change to ecological modernization. The changing stance of the German Greens on the country's energy transition reflects more profound changes of a future society the party collectively envisions through their energy and climate change agenda. These changes result from a struggle between moderates advocating incremental political reforms and radicals aiming for more fundamental and systemic societal change. By merging sustainability transition research with science and technology studies, this article makes a twofold contribution: First, it proposes a conceptual framework to investigate social and political futures envisioned through energy and climate politics. Second, the article empirically demonstrates the long process of depoliticization for an unusual but critical case. Germany's Green Party has embraced a technocentric vision of the energy transition, thereby suppressing earlier notions of broader societal change, such as anti-capitalism and energy democracy. This article spells out implications for the wider field of energy and climate politics and concludes with suggestions for future research.

In December 2015, political leaders celebrated the Paris Agreement as a milestone in the global fight against climate change. Three years later, Greta Thunberg's school strike outside the Swedish parliament inspired thousands of students around the world to protest against their political leaders' inability to adequately respond to climate change. Envisioning livable climate futures for generations to come, the emerging "Fridays for Future" (FFF) movement urges governments to take more radical action on climate change. While FFF has sparked discussions about climate change around the world, the movement's effects on broader societal change remain unclear. We, therefore, explore how FFF has triggered debates beyond the necessity to tackle climate change and offer a framework to reflect upon the broader socio-political implications of the school strikes. We illustrate the contestation between different ideas of social life and political order encapsulated within and attached to FFF by analyzing the movement's self-understanding and the media discourse around these protests in Germany. Although the German government portrays the country as a pioneer in moving an industry-based economy toward decarbonization, the school strikes have quickly emerged and stabilized. We explore if and how the FFF protestors express not only the need for climate action but also call for deeper societal transformation. To do so, our study draws upon a discourse analysis based on news articles, official documents, and speeches, complemented by qualitative interviews with youth representatives and experts involved in the movement to identify competing imaginaries and themes of contestation. We study the tensions between competing student-led visions of the future through the lens of sociotechnical imaginaries, which allows us to illuminate and juxtapose moderate and radical approaches. In conclusion, current school protests are not only about climate action but reflect more fundamental political struggles about competing visions of a future society in times of climate change. Yet, the protestors' strong focus on science-driven politics risks to overshadow these broader societal debates, potentially stabilizing the techno-centric, apolitical and market-driven rationale behind climate action.

This article unveils how the complex multilevel governance system of a developing country affects environmental policy implementation. The Philippine Renewable Energy Act is discussed as an in-depth case study. The law was passed in 2008 to increase the share of renewables in the electricity mix, but its implementation remains a challenge. Analysing the complex multilevel governance system of the Philippines, this article shows how interjurisdictional coordination and the distribution of power resources and capacities affect the implementation process. This qualitative research is based on key documents and insights from 48 expert interviews. From a theoretical perspective, research about power in central–local relations can make a useful contribution to current multilevel governance concepts.

AbstractSince the 1980s, donors already support solar power projects in the Philippines. Reports and documentations provide a positive image on project success, but field trips to earlier project sites tell an opposing story. This field report shows that even in an area with only little donor fragmentation problems like a lack of coordination, communication and learning lead to unsustainable projects. It confronts official project reports with the latest experiences from the field and provides qualitative information to an ongoing debate about potentials and problems of donor diversification. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.