ERIS特刊精选|Focus on Community Energy and Infrastructure Resilience

特刊详情

客座编辑

• Vanesa Castán Broto，英国谢菲尔德大学
• Long Seng To，英国拉夫堡大学
• Mulualem Gebregiorgis Gebreslassie，埃塞俄比亚默克莱大学

主题范围

Community energy has emerged as a new infrastructure paradigm in the energy transition, especially to facilitate the adoption of renewables. At the same time, community energy systems also play a crucial role in building infrastructure resilience.

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2022) calls for actions which address climate adaptation and mitigation at the same time. IPCC Working Group II, which focuses on climate adaptation, emphasises that adapting infrastructures requires building flexibility into existing systems and warns against relying on centralised, interconnected systems that magnify and reproduce cascading risks. In contrast, Working Group III, which focuses on climate mitigation, emphasises the need to build inclusive energy futures with technologies that open pathways and do not foreclose alternatives or lock in energy systems into pathways which later are discovered to be unable to cope with emerging shocks and stresses. In this context, responses that address both concerns are particularly promising for resilient energy transitions.

Communities play a vital role in building resilience through both preventive and post-disaster recovery actions. Community action is also essential to address differential vulnerabilities through equitable plans and programmes. Energy also underpins other aspects of life, from shelter, water, and livelihoods and hence is crucial in the search for equitable futures. Therefore, community energy contains a promise of equitable, resilient infrastructure. But to what extent can that promise be realised in practice?