This reflection outlines the development of a Terms of Reference (ToR) for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in a 6-year energy transitions research project spanning 11 institutions and involving 100 researchers across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), social science, and humanities disciplines. This multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional project involves partnerships with industry and civil society organizations, attempts to center justice-oriented research, and includes communities and users in knowledge co-production in a field of research and practice known for exclusion and marginalization. An EDI ToR is a guiding document that outlines the shared understandings and practices necessary to foster a safe, equitable, and inclusive research environment. Here we describe how 42 researchers across all career stages and 5 time zones co-authored an EDI ToR that reflects the project's context and goals while attempting to make the writing process inclusive. Using autoethnography, we reflect on the process of developing this ToR and evaluate its effectiveness in meeting project needs, fostering shared values, and supporting the education and training of diverse early career researchers. We found that, given the complexity of the project, our approach offered a valuable pathway for the team to reflect on shared values by encouraging early and continuous dialog and alignment among researchers. The ToR offered a compass to help researchers make decisions ethically and inclusively. Our contribution is to demonstrate how an EDI ToR development process can foster reflexivity and offer space to address the tensions that inevitably arise within research teams and tensions between the team's needs and justice-oriented energy research in practice. Drawing on our findings, we recommend that other research teams and funders embed EDI goals, benchmarks, and commitments into their grant proposals and that they hold small-group discussions throughout the EDI ToR development and implementation phases to allow for reflection and iteration.

Place-based approaches to renewable energy transitions tailor solutions to specific social, cultural, economic and ecological contexts inherent to particular localities. Drawing on transformative energy justice frameworks and approaches, we argue that place-based framings and interpretations of impacts of community renewable energy projects provide the means to center Indigenous worldviews, observations and experiences of justice associated with these projects. This co-created study draws on interviews with knowledge holders in 14 First Nations across the Province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. Interview participants shared experiences and observations on both the process (community engagement) and outcome (impacts and benefits) dimensions of 36 operational and planned renewable energy projects, pointing to a rich diversity of social, political, material, economic, ecological and relational impacts. Across a wide range of project sizes and technologies, the findings indicate that deep community engagement and the collective decisions for allocation of revenues mediate the positive and transformative impacts experienced by the community. Taken collectively, these findings show that First Nations approaches to developing projects are place-based, ensuring a wide range of impacts to the community that can collectively contribute to transformative change. In the broader context of systematic neglect of social, environmental and justice-oriented values in public policy making, and amidst widespread failure of ‘decide-announce-defend’ approaches to achieving social acceptance for renewable energy projects, this study demonstrates what distinguishes place-based approaches in practice, and how they deliver transformative outcomes for First Nations. Policy, project and resource allocation decisions should reflect the diverse impacts and transformative outcomes of renewable energy projects in First Nations contexts. We conclude that embedding place-based approaches in institutional arrangements, policy and project design is critical to providing economic opportunities to First Nations without discrimination under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, alongside meeting BC’s power needs and decarbonization goals.

Transitions to low-carbon energy systems require labour market transformations to support resilience, new technologies, and infrastructures across communities. Despite its rapid growth, the worldwide low-carbon energy sector remains one of the least diverse industries and has persistent inequities. Even with steady job growth in the renewable energy sector, women’s overall representation has stagnated since 2019, which indicates the need for new approaches to removing barriers to their entry and retention. Most existing research on the low-carbon energy workforce relies on structured surveys, aggregate labour market data, and projections. Very little is known about the lived experiences and motivations of equity-deserving groups entering the sector. This omission matters because mainstream data often overlooks the qualitative, values-driven perspectives and circumstances that shape career pathways, particularly those of women, newcomers, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) workers. This study uses a co-creation research approach to analyse 119 applications to a grassroots, community-led bursary—the Trellis Fund bursary—from an intersectional group of women. Applications were analysed against a theoretical framework of alternative pathways, strategic niche management, and feminist and energy justice, to generate insights into improving equity in recruitment and retention in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce. Our study’s contribution is to provide deeper insight into how small-scale, grassroots, and flexible funding mechanisms developed within the communities that they serve can foster novel, justice-centred contributions that mainstream funding often overlooks. These insights offer qualitative, narrative-based data as a critical counterpoint to traditional workforce projections. They show that interest and ambition are not lacking; rather, systemic barriers are constraining diversity in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce.

Transformative energy justice addresses root causes and legacies of inequality, centers voices and world views of historically excluded communities in the problem definition, decision making and transition processes. This study offers insights from a unique case of meso-level collective action by First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, aimed at transformative electricity institutional change. We collate regulatory and advocacy text to characterise the range of proposed First Nation Power Authority models and their placement along a continuum of conformative to transformative energy justice. Interviews with knowledge holders from 14 First Nations offer insight into motivations behind transformative change and how it is shaped by historical injustice alongside practical community objectives around energy security, resilience, and community development. First Nations narratives of electricity transformation are aligned with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and with goals of self-determination and incorporate relational and regional approaches. These findings validate theoretical frameworks of transformational energy justice (Avelino et al., 2024; Elmallah et al., 2022). Much of the groundwork has been laid by the collective and the regulator, while new legislation has opened a window of opportunity to increase Indigenous participation and control in the electricity sector.

Renewable energy transitions depend on activities at both ends of the value-chain or lifecycle, from the development of new innovations and technologies to their widespread diffusion. Place-based at scale approaches to renewable energy landscapes create local value, incorporate multifunctionality and decentralisation, mitigate harm for ecosystems, address justice and local resilience. That the potential, demand, and production of renewable energies are place-based phenomena is not accounted for in dominant energy-economy models, requiring new methods of analysis for an energy transition. The emergence of renewable energy across landscapes is increasingly linked in practice to the concept of "renewable energy clusters" that acknowledge the emergence of renewable energy as spatially distributed, heterogeneous and place-based phenomena. Renewable energy clusters describe a range of place-based energy activities along the energy value chain, from production of technologies and innovations to their use. Despite their promise, there lacks a clear definition and typology of renewable energy clusters, and research has not yet synthesised the place-based factors that influence or inhibit their emergence, that could be used to inform place-based strategies that address local assets, actors, space, labour, knowledge issues, or localised justice issues. This work offers a first step by serving as a preliminary investigation of renewable energy clusters and the factors that may predict their emergence. First, a qualitative approach is used to identify three initial types of renewable energy clusters along the energy value chain. The fields of regional sciences, technology innovation systems, and energy geography are drawn upon to identify factors that may influence or inhibit the emergence and form of renewable energy clusters. The seven synthesised dimensions that can be tested to typify and predict renewable energy cluster emergence: actors, institutions, networks, knowledge and tools, proximity, location characteristics, and path dependency. These initial types can guide the development of a sample of empirical cases of renewable energy clusters that can be analysed through machine learning typification to identify a more nuanced articulation of vertically integrated cluster types along the energy value chain. Typification can reveal characteristics these renewable energy clusters have in common with others, and what outcomes emerge from these characteristics within the specific context of place-based energy transitions.

Although geographers are well-positioned to increase the impact and salience of critical, spatially centred and place-based scholarship about energy, highlight that energy geographies do not occupy a central position in climate scholarship, or within human geography, and suggest three pathways to bring energy geographies to the centre of the discipline. Taking a biophysically informed, experientially grounded, place-based perspective to expand on the positioning of energy geographies and justice, I argue that although energy geography may occupy a marginal position within both human geography and energy scholarship, its concerns often lie at the heart of understanding the drivers and dynamics of energy transitions. The practice of actively listening to students and clearly articulating our ideas to help them situate themselves within the subfield are crucial while also enabling energy geographers to refine and expand the conceptual and theoretical foundations of energy geographies. This pedagogical engagement fosters a more heterogeneous and inclusive scholarly community.

To meet energy demand and achieve climate and energy decarbonisation targets, cities adopt a range of mechanisms to facilitate renewable electricity development from their surrounding regions. These mechanisms are likely to have implications for regional community co-benefits, social acceptance of renewable energy projects, and energy justice. This research used document analysis to identify the procurement mechanisms being used by cities to source renewable electricity from surrounding regions and the types of actors involved. The analysis focussed on 27 cities pursuing ambitious 100% renewable energy or carbon neutrality goals and whose plans indicate engagement with their surrounding regions. The results point to eight types of mechanisms used by cities to develop renewable energy in their surrounding region. Of the 56 occurrences identified, 55 involved public actors, 25 involved private actors, and 12 involved civic actors. The findings demonstrate that cities are overcoming their local energy constraints by seeking to develop renewable electricity in their surrounding regions utilising mechanisms that are dominated by the involvement of public and private actors, leaving civic actors underrepresented. Key policy highlightsCities with ambitious renewable energy goals require large amounts of renewable energy to decarbonise. To achieve their decarbonisation goals, cities are adopting a range of mechanisms to facilitate renewable electricity development in the regions that surround them.This study identifies eight types of mechanisms used by cities to drive renewable energy development within their surrounding region; power purchase agreements, project acquisition, city-led project development, incumbent-city collaborative project development, niche-city collaborative project development, centralised decision making, advocacy, and market stimulation. Of the 56 occurrences identified, most were dominated by public (n = 55/56) and private actors (n = 25/56), with little involvement of civic actors (n = 12/56) such as households, citizens and community organisations.Limited citizen involvement in renewable energy development can hinder equitable benefits and social acceptance for regional communities. Civic participation in regional energy development is essential for a just and successful energy transition.

Deep civic engagement in energy transitions has been limited and unique to specific political economic contexts. This study develops a generic policy mix enabling civic energy, drawing on a systematic overview of barriers and policies for civic energy by country and region from 1980 to 2023. We show that when policy mixes support widespread diffusion of civic energy, they are likely to be “thick”; meaning that they align a wide range of corporate legal, market access, energy subsidy, localised planning and facilitation, access to finance, and capacity building policies - extending well beyond the domain of energy policy. Literature suggests that “thick” policy mixes emerge in contexts where there are narratives and conscious strategies for participation, political opportunities and resources mobilised towards enabling participation, with high degrees of fiscal and legislative decentralisation and policy coordination. In contrast, contexts characterised by low levels of civic energy are posited as having “thin” policy mixes, with limited opportunity for inclusive visioning or experimentation in multi-stakeholder platforms, limited decentralisation and policy coordination, resulting in marginalisation of civic arenas, conflicting framings and lack of high-level strategies for civic participation. We identify countries characterised by thick and thin policy mixes based on literature and identify research needed to confirm the existence of exclusive and inclusive governance and policy settings in relation to key indicators for both inclusivity and speed of transitions, allowing for better articulation of the value of inclusive innovation as a practical and beneficial approach to meeting emission reduction goals.

People experiencing poverty are highly exposed to climatic events due to multiple intersecting factors. This commentary centres on poverty, generally, and homelessness, specifically in considering the impacts of climate change on health equity in Canada. We propose prioritizing poverty reduction and prevention over emergency response through measures such as universal basic income and enhanced housing standards. Such work can be grounded in inclusive assessments of risks and leveraged interventions, Indigenous leadership, intersectoral collaboration, and community engagement. We argue that it is essential that we move beyond the current, broad awareness of climate change as a threat multiplier with an emphasis on individual responsibility and the “othering” of people experiencing poverty. What is needed is a clear, systems-focused action fundamentally different from the pace and nature of the work done to date.

A Terms of Reference (ToR) for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a guiding document that provides an overview of the principles, philosophy and commitments made in a project team for how to foster a safe and inclusive collaborative research environment. By adapting the meaning of EDI within the specific context of the research project, it communicates a shared set of expectations to ensure accountability from project leaders and team members. CANSTOREnergy is a research project that aims to re-envision energy systems and energy storage technologies to address the diverse needs and perspectives of urban and rural communities in Canada, with attention to energy access, control, and governance. CANSTOREnergy involves 75 researchers in a wide range of disciplines and career stages across STEM, social sciences and humanities from over 11 institutions located across Canada. The contribution of this paper is the adaptation of an EDI ToR method normally used by specific institutions to its application to a large multi-institutional, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary project with input from all project members. This ToR can serve as an example to similar projects seeking to develop an EDI terms of reference tailor-made to their own context amidst three global trends in research. The rise of multi-institutional, multi-national and multi-disciplinary research projects to develop and deploy low-carbon technologies to mitigate climate change. The acknowledgement of the need to involve communities in early stages of research, often called "co-creation", as an attempt to advance justice and include communities that have traditionally been excluded or marginalized from research and energy decisions. The growing acknowledgement that the previous two trends are inhibited by the lack of diversity across all elements of the energy sector, from education, to research, to technology development, to implementation.

Jurisdictions use an assortment of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate policy mixes have often evolved through the ad hoc layering of new policies onto an existing policy mix, rather than deliberate design of a complete policy portfolio. This can lead to unanticipated interactions between policies which can support or undermine policy objectives and is further complicated where climate policy is implemented at multiple jurisdictional levels. In the context of Canada and its four most populous provinces, we examine the development of climate policy mixes across jurisdictional levels between 2000 and 2020 and evaluate policy interactions. We develop an inventory of 184 climate policies, and examine each in terms of instrument type, implementation timing, technological specificity, and expected abatement. We evaluate interactions between overlapping policies both within jurisdictional levels (horizontal) and across jurisdictional levels (vertical) for their impact on emissions abatement using a policy coherence analysis framework. We find that subsidies and R&D funding were the most abundant policies (58%), although pricing and flexible regulation are expected to achieve the most abatement. Sub-national jurisdictions have often acted as policy pilots preceding federal policy implementation. We evaluate 356 policy interactions and find 74% are consistent in adding abatement. Less than 8% have a negative impact by reducing abatement, although vertical interactions between federal and provincial policies were more often negative (11%) than horizontal interactions at the federal (<3%) or provincial (<2%) levels. Although the impact of many interactions is unknown (13%), we generate interaction matrices as a foundational roadmap for future research, and for policy-makers to consider potential interactions when designing and assessing policy effectiveness.Key policy insightsClimate policy mixes have expanded and diversified over the period 2000-2020 across jurisdictions in Canada.Sub-national jurisdictions have often acted as policy 'pilots' by implementing policy before the adoption of similar national level policy.Climate mitigation policy interactions are predominantly supportive toward achieving additional emissions abatement.Vertical interactions between federal and provincial policy can undermine the additionality of policy effort by sub-national jurisdictions.These findings emphasize the need for better coordination in climate policy mix design between national and sub-national jurisdictions.

Models have long been effective tools in the planning and policy making of energy systems, but low-carbon electrification—decarbonizing generation supply while expanding electrical demand—poses new challenges for the modeling community. At its core, electrification relies on integrating insights that span the supply and demand side of power systems, resolving operational characteristics and long-term climate change, and the integration of previously independent engineered systems. However, our modeling landscape consists of a suite of models that focus on distinct sectors (power, buildings, transport) and spatial–temporal scales (municipal, provincial, federal). This paper probes whether the existing suite of energy system models, which span sectors, disciplines, and jurisdictions, is up to the task of charting net-zero pathways, specifically in the Canadian context. To do so, we analyze an inventory of energy system models that are being used in practice using a recently assembled model database. Next, we supplement our analysis with a web-based search and literature review. For each model category, we describe the key modeling approaches, strengths and weaknesses, and typical ways and areas in which these models are applied. We find that by focusing on a specific scale and sector, these models by their very definition, omit out-of-scope interactions leaving critical information gaps. Many of the most imperative areas for future research straddle multiple sectors or multiple scales—electric vehicle charging, carbon policy coordination, regional electricity trading, to name a few. Future research should focus on identifying ways in which different models could be used together to produce policy-related conclusions that are as detailed but more holistic than conclusions that can be gleaned from an individual model.

Philanthropic foundations need to make a more concerted effort to fund more equitable, diverse and inclusive (EDI) organizations to work on the energy transition in Canada, argues Christina Hoicka.

In the literature on community energy, there has been little exploration of how legal forms affect the governance structures employed and resulting impacts to communities. In a settler colonial context like Canada, renewable energy transitions and projects will take place on or near Indigenous traditional territories. In the emerging body of knowledge around Indigenous community involvement in renewable energy the role of the Indigenous economic development corporation (EDCs), a uniquely Indigenous legal form has had little attention. Although a range of governance structures that could support renewable energy projects exist; what has not been explored are which legal forms tend to employ specific governance structures. Employing a national dataset, surveys and interviews, this study assesses the experience and involvement of Indigenous EDCs as a legal form in renewable energy projects, the governance structures EDCs employ, and how these governance structures respond to the needs for self-determination and decision-making power of Indigenous communities. The findings show that at least 26 EDCs are involved in renewable energy projects, that EDCs tend to use economic instruments, while political organizations, (e.g., Band Council), tend to use political instruments, such as impact and benefit agreements (IBAs). Interviewed and surveyed EDCs agreed that ownership of a project is more beneficial than IBAs that tend to be short lived. Although full ownership denotes control over a project, which aligns with UNDRIP, the desired level of ownership varies depending on a variety of factors, such as comfort with risk and how provincial context affects preferred ownership structures.

Climate change is one of society's biggest and most existential challenges in scale and scope. The energy sector is the largest contributor to climate disruption, and low-carbon energy solutions are needed for mitigation. However, the energy sector, and sustainable energy research, are not representative of society at large. Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) activities focus on the removal of barriers, representation and valuing the contributions of individuals of a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, abilities and identities. Within this context, do equity, diversity and inclusion matter in sustainable energy research, and if so, as scholars, how do we improve in these areas? In providing advice, mainly to early career researchers, but to the established researchers too, I offer advice on creating and finding the culture and governance of EDI as meaningful practice in three steps: 1) find your people; 2) find or create spaces; 3) lean out and start again.

Environmental philanthropy is expanding while inequities and disparities among those impacted by environmental degradation are also growing. Little is known about the distribution of funds from environmental philanthropy, that is, who is benefitting and who is excluded? This study analyzes how environmental philanthropy is being distributed among non-profit organizations working on a low-carbon energy transition in Canada. The funding sources of 462 organizations characterized as either diversity-led or conventional-led were analyzed and compared. Organizations that are clearly led by equity deserving communities were classified as “diversity-led” while organizations that provided no indication of diverse leadership were classified as “conventional-led”. The findings indicate that the 356 conventional-led organizations receive philanthropic support from more funders than the 106 diversity-led organizations. The diversity-led organizations, that are more often addressing equity-deserving communities, received philanthropic support three times less often, and support from less funders than the conventional-led organizations. These results demonstrate that environmental philanthropy in Canada favors a large set of established organizations and perpetuates a landscape of exclusion for diversity-led organizations working on the low-carbon energy transition. By perpetuating disparities through funding, philanthropy is reinforcing inequities among marginalized communities. This in turn is setting back the progress of equity in low-carbon energy transitions in Canada.

In a post-COVID era many are counting on a large sustainability transition stimulus to be a central part of economic re-build strategies, so that the stimulus helps to “build back better.” But what exactly does this “better” look like, and how might we achieve it? In this chapter we examine the concept of energy democracy (ED) and the lessons this concept holds for our understanding of Green New Deals. Energy democracy challenges the traditional elite and technocratic orientation of energy systems by highlighting the normative value and strategic importance of including citizens and civil society organizations in the design, ownership and operation of energy infrastructure. We argue that GND proposals lacking significant democratization components are unlikely to be deeply transformative and thus more likely to reproduce (or even intensify) existing socio-economic cleavages.

Although complementarity achieved by combining multiple renewable energy sources (RES) is an important method to increase shares of RES, it is often overlooked in policy prescriptions supporting an energy transition. Complementarity can be implemented by multiple actors, however there has been little attention to which actors are involved, and their roles. A systematic review was conducted to provide an overview of the state of academic literature on the topic of combinations of multiple RES and the involvement of multiple associated actors. The sample included 78 articles using a range of methodologies to analyze varying combinations of wind, solar, bioenergy, hydro, geothermal, and ocean energy, alongside combinations of traditional, new, and supporting energy actors. Studies included contextualized (location specific) agent-based, techno-economic, economic, business model, and qualitative analyses, and decontextualized reviews, agent-based, and optimization models. Multi-actor complementarity is being addressed by diverse disciplines in diverse contexts globally, across a range of geographic scales. The majority of studies focus on solar-wind, although more diverse RES combinations were found in contextualized studies. New actors usually participate alongside traditional system actors. More attention to supporting actors is required. Findings highlight the need for further research beyond the technical benefits of combining multiple RES, to explore the roles of various actors. This can be accomplished by incorporating more context in studies, for example, using the substantial existing body of data and research, and by including a greater range of RES combinations, and incorporating more perspectives of associated actors.

Following its growing popularity in practice, social scientists have turned their attention to a greater understanding of community energy (CE). Beginning with Walker and Devine-Wright's 2008 framework, researchers have consistently been critical about the use of the term – especially when doing so to further powerful, non-local interests. Unpacking what the ‘community’ in CE means has been of particular interest and a few recent studies have shown that different sets of outcomes largely depend on what definition is used. At the same time, many in this literature have pointed to the value of geographic concepts – for example, characterizing communities as either Communities of Place (COPs) or Communities of Interest (COIs). Yet these two characterizations have largely remained in the background, rather than the focus, of CE studies. Here, we attempt to add conceptual clarity to the term CE by tracing the benefits of COP, COI, and hybrid-based (i.e. a combination) projects. We do so through a qualitative content analysis of 133 research articles from more than 30 countries published from 2010 to 2020. The benefits of COP-based CE (i.e. greater social acceptance, creating ‘energy citizens’) are mostly associated with popular descriptions of CE, while the benefits of COI-based CE were cited as those that address the perceived shortcomings of COP-based CE. Finally, it might be the hybrid approach that can effectively marry both COPs and COIs. More specifically, we find that the order of this ‘marriage’ matters and recommend that approaches centered around Communities of Place, then Interest (COPTI) should be prioritized. The paper closes with a discussion of some possible next steps, in terms of social scientific research and the practice of CE.

Renewable energy is required in a transition to reduce carbon intensive energy and mitigate climate disruption. Decentralized renewable energy systems are more resilient to environmental hazards than centralized sources of power. When two or more variable renewable energy sources (VRES) are combined and asynchronous, the resulting complementarity can smooth out the combined power production. Complementarity among renewable sources can be achieved among multiple actors as producers or prosumers, as well as increasing engagement in demand side management and other flexibility measures. Complementarity is also spatially dependent, as renewable sources, and their patterns of asynchronicity vary in space, which impacts the potential actors who can harness these resources. The technical and social science literature increasingly acknowledges the importance of multi-renewable energy sources and multi-actor, and multi-end use energy systems analysis as a method of optimization. However, what is unclear in the social science literature, at multiple scales (from a regional grid to a localized grid, or a region to local community or neighborhood), is how complementarity can be encouraged or governed. In governance, this is a collective problem, whether governed by markets or by communities by hybrid democratic processes. This chapter outlines the important concepts to characterize and address how to govern complementarity among multiple actors at multiple scales of decision making.