Elsevier

Applied Energy

Volume 228, 15 October 2018, Pages 317-323
Applied Energy

Energy justice and policy change: An historical political analysis of the German nuclear phase-out

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.06.093Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Historical institutionalism is applied to energy justice for the first time.

  • Critical junctures provide opportunity windows for policy actors to influence change.

  • Chernobyl is identified as a critical juncture in German nuclear policy.

  • Small businesses are a key driver of energy policy change.

Abstract

The German government presented the decision to phase out nuclear energy as a nationally accepted rebalancing of inequality in the energy sector. We expose how this radical change was delivered through a myriad of change agents, most notably through the rise of small energy companies. Critical junctures, in this case the Chernobyl disaster rather than Fukushima, offer moments in time when national policy systems are destabilized. They provide opportunities for changing policy in a perceived pro-energy justice direction if a new consensus can be forged. The paper concludes with a discussion on how energy scholars must engage more with policy analysis frameworks if long-term effective solutions are to be found to persistent energy inequalities.

Introduction

The decarbonisation of the energy sector must be accompanied by long-term societal buy-in [1], [2]. At the heart of this endeavour lies the requirement to implant equity and justice (termed as ‘energy justice’) into the fabric of energy systems [3]. We often think of the processes that need to happen for energy justice to occur – reframing policy values [3], [4], [5], integrating energy systems [6], [7], reducing consumption [8], [9], [10], increasing energy ‘capabilities’ [11], [12], [13], ensuring human security [14], mitigating climate change [2], [15], re-interpreting activism [16] and projecting ethics [1], [17]. Existing research is heavily driven by spatial or place centred explanations of change. We have not properly considered in the energy justice literature when and how policy change takes place. This paper responds to this gap through exploring how notions of critical junctures [18] and change agents [19] help us understand when and how energy justice can be achieved in the context of policy change.

We focus on both in the development of nuclear energy policy in Germany. Rehner and McCauley [20] revealed in their study of German nuclear policy that a wide range of government, business and civil society actors consider the phase out of nuclear energy to be a perceived just outcome. Sovacool, Andersen [21] go further by arguing that society should reject nuclear power to achieve energy justice. Achieving energy justice is therefore based upon value judgements on which energy technologies should be supported, and which should be rejected [22]. In terms of German policy on nuclear energy, the final value judgement by policy actors was to consider that nuclear energy should be rejected to further energy justice [23].

Within this context, our paper investigates how this final judgement came about. It is often wrongly assumed [20], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28] that the Fukushima disaster led to a seismic alteration in nuclear policy in Germany, driven by an opportunistic German government. Studies on public opinion suggest a major shift in the German psyche after Fukushima [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]. We focus on the less studied role of policy actors in German nuclear policy and reveal below that the process began much earlier after the Chernobyl disaster – what we term as the ‘critical juncture’. This disaster initiated an opportunity window for policy change on nuclear. Our analysis reveals that emerging small businesses, rather than simply government actors, were critical during this time for succeeding to re-orient German nuclear policy towards phase-out. We conclude the paper with reflections on key conclusions and implications for both interdisciplinary research in energy.

Section snippets

Energy justice, critical junctures and change agents

We position our study within an emerging literature set on energy justice as well as the more established scholarship in historical policy analysis. The application of the latter to energy justice offers a new definitional and analytical framework, which emphasizes temporal reflection in relation to critical junctures, change agents and, more broadly, shifting policy trajectories. This framework emphasizes the need for engineers and economists in the energy sector to be cognizant of how policy

Methodology

A key factor in country selection is the evidently contrasting experiences of Germany on nuclear policy with its European counterparts. France, as the leading European nuclear nation, has not replicated the much-publicized roll back of the German nuclear industry. The German government decided to phase out all of its nuclear electricity capacity by 2022. It declared on 15th March 2011 that 8 (from 17 in total) of its oldest nuclear reactors would be immediately placed out of operation. This

Assessing the role of change agents

Chernobyl opened a lengthy phase of uncertainty with regards to nuclear policy. In historical policy analysis, there are normally three categories of actors [19], [47], [48]. This is in addition to public opinion which dominates engineering and particularly economic based research on nuclear and social acceptability [24], [29], [34], [78], [79]. The first is the state, as a multi actor agent with institutions at a local, regional and national level. The second is business involving large and

Conclusion and policy implications: achieving energy justice

Reflecting on our central empirical research question, why did the agents of change succeed in moving German nuclear policy when the agents of continuity did not? In terms of context, our answer is not the Fukushima disaster. We point to the critical role played by the Chernobyl disaster instead (as detailed in Section 4). It opened up the space for government and new emerging businesses to agree upon the Renewable Act in 2006. This set in motion a significant change in German nuclear policy.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the interviewees for taking so much time out to reflect on key events. We also thank the reviewers for their comments on our submission. In terms of funders, we thank the ESRC (ES/I001425/1).

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