Proximities of energy justice: contesting community energy and austerity in England

Abstract

Spatial inequities are deeply embedded in low-carbon energy transition processes. As a result, new forms of contestation are emerging that reveal social inequalities at the heart of community-led responses to climate change. This paper uses four tenets of energy justice – distributional, procedural, restorative and recognition justice – to critically analyse and understand the politics and geography of local renewable energy deployment in Bristol, England. Focusing on the development of two solar PV farms in and around Lawrence Weston, an area of high deprivation in North West Bristol, the paper demonstrates the critical nature of instances of both energy justice and injustice in a time of austerity. Using primary data obtained via a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach in Bristol during 2015–2017, the paper draws on participant observation data and in-depth interviews (n = 10) with a variety of local energy actors and community members active in Lawrence Weston. The primary data details the extent to which spatial configurations of new low-carbon energy infrastructures are integral to their justice implications. Indeed, it is the proximity of projects both close to and within the Lawrence Weston community that shapes the participant’s thoughts and deliberations on how to achieve local energy justice, through appeal to the four tenets outlined.The findings emphasise the distributional justice impacts of creating new low-carbon energy infrastructures in deprived communities in a time of austerity, whilst also noting that ‘opening up’ local energy transitions to greater input from local communities’ offers opportunities to achieve procedural justice. Shifting relationships between local energy actors and Lawrence Weston highlight opportunities for the remediation of past claims of injustice, facilitating processes of restorative justice, whilst local energy schemes that seek to advance greater ‘active participant’ (skills training & employment) opportunities for deprived communities in which they, or their projects, are embedded, may be underpinned by recognition justice concerns. This ‘active participant’ approach is shown to be key to advancing beyond ‘passive recipient’ approaches to community energy transitions and enhancing spatial equity. Finally, the paper offers novel empirical insights into the contested role of geography, space and place in local transitions and contributes to bottom-up perspectives on issues of spatial (in)justice in community energy schemes.