Sustainable Energy Landscape Strategies - Feasibility, Fusion and Alternative Futures
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Elisa Rieger
Karl-Franzens-University Graz Austria
elisa.rieger@gmx.at
Author(s):
Sustainable development is urgently in need of resilient energy landscapes, capable to support basic needs for stable and peaceful states of the future. If we look at current research on global energy markets, it becomes evident, that energy landscapes all over the world need to change substantially. In order to provide basic needs, such as water supply, electricity and heating in cold areas, energy infrastructures will become pivotal. Therefore, my contribution tackles the research questions, in which ways current future energy landscapes are imagined by whom and under which conditions.
As a consequence, I will focus on the case of fusion energy. Its role in future energy markets, discussed within academia, will be examined as well as the global conditions of its special knowledge distribution. Assuming, we would reach the aim of technically constructing fusion power plants that work perfectly well by 2060, we still lack two very important details at the moment: primarily, the wider acceptance of this new technology and secondly, the unequal nature of its knowledge distribution all over the world (needless to name high energy provision capacities of countries doing research in fusion). Even in European countries, the acceptance of fusion in the main public opinion, has its adversaries, not even to mention the lack of educational »decolonized« attempts to equally share the knowledge and participation in such knowledge hubs. Not convinced? - How many plasma physicists would you know from Kenya, Tibet or Peru?
A second case, then examines the recent published UNHCR’s »Global Strategy for Sustainable Energy«, in order to learn and to shape future energy landscapes from bottom up built United Nations energy strategies. At places, where people are urgently in need of basic energy infrastructure, free from overproduction and exaggeration, we can learn and draw significant conclusions. Can we imagine future mobile energy infrastructures free of carbon emissions for millions of people? Are new ways of cooperation become obvious between states, people and places in need and the private sector? What consequences are implied concerning the realization of such new global sustainable energy strategies and could significant energy policies be drawn for future development of single states?
Finally, I will conclude on imaginations of resilience concerning these two different scenarios. The concept of »sustainable energy« will be weighed out thoroughly. What is feasible, what is imaginable and what do we need, in order to manage future needs.
Towards what futures? The political dimensions of sustainable development and resilience