Affordability Risks, Trust in Institutions and Paying for Energy Transitions

The following paper will be presented as part of the Symposium entitled Energy Transition Risks, Uncertainties and Societal Values. Research at Cardiff University has developed a model of core values underlying societal... [ view full abstract ]

The following paper will be presented as part of the Symposium entitled Energy Transition Risks, Uncertainties and Societal Values.

Research at Cardiff University has developed a model of core values underlying societal preferences and attitudes to the risks underlying sustainable system transitions, highlighting how these preferences are also bound up with people’s trust in institutions, and their views on financing and governance arrangements. All of these issues bear upon the ‘social licence to operate’ that industry and government will need for safely and reliably delivering long-term, sustainable low-carbon transitions. Drawing upon both qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of the Public Values for Energy System Change project we specifically examine public perspectives on the way energy transitions are paid for and how risks around affordability and cost are managed within transition processes. Further, we discuss potential relationships between public preferences for acceptable technological and societal change and the scale, charging arrangements, and composition of costs to individual consumers. Subsequently, a major focus of new research conducted at Cardiff will be to investigate the extent to which existing relationships of distrust influence people’s judgements of: (1) the equitable distribution of investment and transition costs, as well as risks, between consumers, market actors and governments; (2) preferable charging and financing configurations; and (3) how these are related to concerns about fairness and justice (e.g. impacts on disadvantaged groups).