Login Register Cart 0
Generic placeholder image

Current Alternative Energy

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 2405-4631
ISSN (Online): 2405-464X

Back
Journal Home About Journal Editorial Board Current Issue Volumes/Issues
Subscribe
Review Article

Disasters as Catalysts for Energy Transition

Author(s): Kelly D’Alessandro* and Paul Dargusch

Volume 4, Issue 1, 2021

Published on: 04 September, 2020

Page: [47 - 54] Pages: 8

DOI: 10.2174/2405463104999200904114514

Price: $65

Abstract

The concept of disaster as a positive force for change seems intuitive, but is covered only occasionally in the energy transition literature. We review disaster risk and recovery literature to assess how these types of transformations may be different, and provide a change pathway within the popular Multi-Level Perspective framework. While incumbent systems are, by definition, stable (making change difficult), disaster can override these challenges by providing simultaneous disruption at all structure levels. By exceeding the capacity of the regime and its established processes and practices, disaster provides an opportunity to reformat social structures through reconstruction and recovery processes. Importantly, significant disruption has the ability to plasticize the landscape for a short timeframe, with potential change within a finite deviation from existing trends. During this disruptive period, the regime and landscape become co-dependent, with any meso-level void filled by a combination of new and reconstructed fragments, working to restore the stability of the foundation. The new regime must then satisfy the resultant set of socially dictated conditions set by the revised landscape to maintain the new structure. The challenge then is not to be restrained by the swift recovery of the previous regime, and to form a new set of conditions to deliver improved outcomes that better balance the needs of natural and anthropogenic systems.

Keywords: Disaster, energy transition, landscape transformationmulti-level perspective, social networks, system disruption, climate.

Graphical Abstract

[1]
A. Kirby, "Kick the habit: A UN Guide to climate neutrality", United Nations Environmental Programme, Malta, 2008. [Online].. Available: http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_c/img/grid/kick_full_lr.pdf
[2]
A. Smith, A. Stirling, and F. Berkhout, "The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions", Res. Policy, vol. 34, no. 10, pp. 1491-1510, 2005.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2005.07.005]
[3]
N.N. Taleb, "The black swan: the impact of the highly improbable 2nd Ed., Random trade pbk, New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks 2010",
[4]
B.K. Sovacool, and D.J. Hess, "Ordering theories: typologies and conceptual frameworks for sociotechnical change", Soc. Stud. Sci., p. 306312717709363, Jun 01 2017.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306312717709363]
[5]
J. Fagerberg, and B. Verspagen, "Innovation studies—the emerging structure of a new scientific field", Res. Policy, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 218-233, 2009.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2008.12.006]
[6]
F.W. Geels, "The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: responses to seven criticisms", Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 24-40, 2011.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2011.02.002]
[7]
F.W. Geels, and J. Schot, "Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways", Res. Policy, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 399-417, 2007.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.01.003]
[8]
M. Betsill, and D. Stevis, "The politics and dynamics of energy transitions: lessons from Colorado’s (USA) new energy economy", Environm. Plan. C: Govt. Policy. Editorial, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 381-396, 2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263774X15614668]
[9]
J. Rutherford, and O. Coutard, "Urban energy transitions: places, processes and politics of socio-technical change", Urban Stud., vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 1353-1377, 2014.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098013500090]
[10]
R. Challenger, and C.W. Clegg, "Crowd disasters: a socio-technical systems perspective contemporary social science", Crowds in the 21st Cent., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 343-360, 2011.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2011.619862]
[11]
J.L. Lane, "Understanding constraints to the transformation rate of global energy infrastructure", Hoboken, USA, vol. 5, pp. 33-48, 2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wene.177]
[12]
A.D. Andersen, "No transition without transmission: HVDC electricity infrastructure as an enabler for renewable energy?", Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit., vol. 13, pp. 75-95, 2014.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2014.09.004]
[13]
"United Nations International strategy for disaster risk reduction, living with risk : a global review of disaster reduction initiatives”", Int. Strat. Disaster Reduct. United Nations. (no. Accessed from https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1583318 New York: United Nations, 2004
[14]
J. Mochizuki, and S.E. Chang, "Disasters as opportunity for change: tsunami recovery and energy transition in Japan", Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct., vol. 21, pp. 331-339, 2017.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.01.009]
[15]
J. Birkmann, "Extreme events and disasters: a window of opportunity for change? Analysis of organizational, institutional and political changes, formal and informal responses after mega-disasters", Nat. Hazards, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 637-655, 2010.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-008-9319-2]
[16]
P. Upham, "Agency and structure in a sociotechnical transition: hydrogen fuel cells, conjunctural knowledge and structuration in Europe", Energy Res. Soc. Sci., vol. 37, pp. 163-174, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.09.040]
[17]
T. Wakiyama, E. Zusman, and J.E.I. Monogan, "Can a low-carbon-energy transition be sustained in post-Fukushima Japan? Assessing the varying impacts of exogenous shocks", Energy Policy, vol. 73, pp. 654-666, 2014.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.06.017]
[18]
L. Hermwille, "The role of narratives in socio-technical transitions-Fukushima and the energy regimes of Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom", Energy Res. Soc. Sci., vol. 11, pp. 237-246, 2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2015.11.001]
[19]
R. Daggy, T. Wakiyama, E. Zusman, and J.E. Monogan, "Analysing drivers of low carbon transitions in post-Fukushima Japan: a cross-city comparison of electricity consumption", J. Comparat. Asian Develop., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 137-170, 2015.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15339114.2015.1014301]
[20]
H. Nakamura, "Willingness to know and talk: citizen attitude toward energy and environmental policy deliberation in post-Fukushima Japan", Energy Policy, vol. 115, p. 12, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.12.055]
[21]
Y. Shibuya, Social media communication data for recovery detecting socio-economic activities following a disaster., Singapore: Springer, 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0825-7]
[22]
S. Strunz, "The German energy transition as a regime shift", Ecol. Econ., vol. 100, pp. 150-158, 2014.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.01.019]
[23]
E. Jones, and A. Faas, "Social network analysis of disaster response, recovery, and adaptation", Elsevier, p. 322, 2016.
[24]
T. Yabe, S. Ukkusuri, and P.C. Rao, "Mobile phone data reveals the importance of pre-disaster inter-city social ties for recovery after Hurricane Maria", Applied Netw. Sci., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-18, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41109-019-0221-5]
[25]
S. Lee, A.M. Sadri, S.V. Ukkusuri, R.A. Clawson, and J. Seipel, "Network structure and substantive dimensions of improvised social support ties surrounding households during post-disaster recovery", Natural Hazards Rev., vol. 20, no. 4, p. 28, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000332]
[26]
C.H. Lai, B. She, and X. Ye, "Unpacking the network processes and outcomes of online and offline humanitarian collaboration", Communic. Res., vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 88-116, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650215616862]

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
Article Metrics
54
1
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy