Embargo Period

8-19-2021

Degree Name

MA in Climate Change and Global Sustainability

First Advisor

Rim Berahab

Abstract

Transitioning the Energy Sector from fossil fuels to renewable energy is perhaps the biggest opportunity to sustainably mitigate climate change. This paper presents a multi-tier holistic framework to score and visually represent the key features of sustainability that could influence the long-term success of the energy transition in different social, ecological, and economic contexts. The framework is applied in detail to Morocco and Italy. The complexity of the concept of sustainability calls for a tool that can help stakeholders locate and address priority areas. Five dimensions of sustainability have been described: institutional, environmental, social, economic, and technical. These are divided into variables and scored via indicators. To ensure the accessibility and credibility of results, all selected indicators were sourced from public and widely available data. The resulting framework can be adapted to different situations and scales to support management choices. To the author’s knowledge, previous studies have either dealt with sustainability in broader terms or analyzed only one specific dimension of it. This study considers sustainability as a foundation to enable a fair and efficient transition to renewable energy, analyzing important interactions between sustainability dimensions. Main reflections found in this study include a) measuring sustainability in all its dimensions is crucial to set priorities; b) transversal and intersectoral approaches will gain relevance due to the interconnections between elements of sustainability; c) communication, and awareness are crucial to increase bottom-up participation to the energy transition both for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Disciplines

Development Studies | Energy Policy | Environmental Policy | Environmental Studies | Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation | Politics and Social Change | Social Influence and Political Communication | Social Justice

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