Identifying typologies of synthetic energy justice: Eco-centric and anthropocentric perspectives

• Published in: Energy & Environment
• Main Authors: Seo, Inseok, Lee, Youhyun
• Other Authors: National Research Foundation of Korea
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2023
• Subjects: Energy (miscellaneous); Energy Engineering and Power Technology; Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Environmental Engineering; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0958305x231167466; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0958305X231167466; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0958305X231167466

Since the concept of energy justice emerged, studies have conceptually, but rarely empirically, explored energy justice. In addition, studies on energy justice have mainly focused on anthropocentric values toward energy justice. This study aims to categorize Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries’ energy justice using synthetic energy justice via two aspects: eco-centrism and anthropocentrism. Each aspect of energy justice is sub-divided into distributive, substantive, and procedural justices. Using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis methodology via a statistical program, we suggest typologies of 35 OECD countries for each aspect. Eight types of energy justice for each aspect are extracted, and four types of synthetic energy justice groups are identified among OECD countries. Austria, Iceland, and Luxembourg show the best performance in synthetic energy justice, but do not reach a complete contestable status from an eco-centric perspective. This study provides practical policy implications for OECD countries to self-evaluate each country's macroscopic policy direction in the energy sector, and to ultimately pursue synthetic energy justice with a balanced perspective for our environment and us.