Just electrification: Imagining the justice dimensions of energy access and addressing energy poverty

Abstract

Billions of people live without access to modern energy services around the world, the majority of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to address this issue, efforts to increase energy access, especially in electrification for the energy-poor, have increased globally. However, current electrification planning largely relies on techno-economic criteria and fails to incorporate ethical and fairness considerations. These deficiencies in the planning phase result in the construction of energy infrastructure that fails to provide energy services to those who need them the most further exacerbating energy access inequalities at a local level. This paper aims to consider an approach for a justice-based electrification planning framework that reevaluates the electrification planning and decision-making process.