JUSTPOWER: Democracy and justice challenges in energy transformations

Amid escalating climate risks and unprecedented investments in clean energy, undemocratic political regimes are on the rise.

Energy transition projects themselves can catalyse undemocratic tendencies and parties, political repression, and geopolitical alliances with undemocratic states.

Yet, the processes through which this occurs remain under-studied.This project responds to the urgent need to understand better the intersections between energy transition initiatives and undemocratic processes, with the aim to build a transformative theory of ‘Energy Democracy’ to guide more inclusive and just low-carbon futures.

It builds on an analysis of selected energy transition efforts in two European countries differently positioned on the authoritarianism-democracy scale: Hungary and Sweden.The objectives are:To decipher the relationships between societal inequalities and the just energy transitions agenda (empirical focus on energy poverty and intersectional inequalities)To map conflicts over knowledge in energy transition (empirical focus on knowledge struggles)To probe how theories and practices of energy justice change when we account for democracy and to empirically test novel strategies for enhancing democratic dimensions in energy justice policy and practice (theoretical andsociety-relevant dimension)The project will generate recommendations for policy-making and scientific communication for inclusive democratic energy transformations amid rising authoritarianism.