The Power of Justice

Spatial Strategies for a fair Energy Transition in North-West Europe

Student report (2023)

Authors

A. van der Padt Architecture and the Built Environment
M.M. Rybak Architecture and the Built Environment
H. Spaaij Architecture and the Built Environment
H. Hashas Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

Alex Wandl Environmental Technology and Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
M.M. Dabrowski Spatial Planning and Strategy - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
R.C. Rocco de Campos Pereira Spatial Planning and Strategy - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2023 Arjanne van der Padt, Małgorzata Rybak, Jing Spaaij, Hasan Hashas
Rotterdam Spatial Justice Energy Transition Geopolitics Social Justice Ruhr-area
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

21-04-2023

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

The energy industry is responsible for almost 89% of GHG emissions (IEA, 2022), and projected CO2 emissions would exceed the 1.5°C goal (IPCC,2023). There is no question that we need to transition towards renewable energy sources, it has become an urgency and we need to transition now.

However, there are several challenges within this energy transition. Renewable energy sources require better spatial planning in terms of land-use. Its production and the stability of energy systems require reliable and resilient geopolitical relationships. It is also a challenge to ensure affordability and accessibility of renewable energy, as well as the acceptance of the transition towards renewables. We have to tackle all these challenges while involving nature as an actor.

We aim to achieve a just and resilient energy transition by 2050. This means creating secured geopolitical relationships, ensuring affordable, accessible and fair distributed energy and regenerating ecology in the process. These goals are divided into three main pillars: Geopolitics, Social aspects and Ecology. With circular economy as one of our theoretic frameworks combined with our pillars, we create a conceptual framework. In this report we made use of other theoretic frameworks like resilience, spatial and social justice, the pattern language and panarchy theory.

Spatial analysis and literature research have concluded in several strategies to ensure a just and resilient energy transition. We zoomed into the region of and between Rotterdam and Ruhr-area. On this scale we determined areas of specialised and generalised production; inter-connection of energy production landscape and expanded protected nature areas; mixed land-use of energy production, agriculture, the urban fabric and natural areas. On a local scale we explained two different systems of rural decentralised energy systems with a bottom-up approach.

The ‘Power of justice’ aims for a future that is resilient and just because of strong geopolitical relationships and an improved energy grid. We not only consider present life but also the future of human and non-human generations.