Facilitating a transition in community

Transcription

1 School Sustainability of something Research Institute FACULTY OF OTHER ENVIRONMENT Facilitating a transition in community Material infrastructure Criticality governance Katy Roelich, Christof Knoeri, Julia Steinberger and Jonathan Busch Earth Systems Governance, July 2014 Transformations in community actions and governance

2 Outline Why is community energy provision different to mainstream energy provision? Why do we need an alternative form of governance? What can we learn from governance of common pool resources and public services? 2

3 Energy infrastructure now Commodity flow Monetary flows Source: Green 2011 Financial value Private good 3

4 Community energy infrastructure Financial flow Energy flow Emissions reductions Fuel poverty reduction Local economic growth Self sufficiency Community development Attributed to more than just end user Difficult to exclude other users 4

5 Governing infrastructure Common pool resource management Public services Rivalrous Non-rivalrous Excludable Private good Food, clothing, cars Club goods Cinemas, private parks Non-Excludable Common good Fish stocks, timber, coal Public goods Air, national defense Providing and producing public goods and common-pool resources at local, regional, national and international levels require different institutions than open, competitive markets or highly centralized governmental institutions. Ostrom 2008 Emissions reductions Fuel poverty reduction Local economic growth Self sufficiency Community development 5

6 Transferable insights from commonpool resource management Insight #1: There are no panaceas Best practice and standardisation won t work Privatisation and liberalisation (alone, and in its current form) discriminates against community energy Focus on one form of value where multiple are produced Support flows through market actors Ignores the fact that others (could) benefit from energy provision We need a better way of capturing and distributing complex value 6

7 Transferrable insights Ostrom s design principles 1A. User Boundaries: Clear and locally understood boundaries between legitimate users and nonusers are present. 1B. Resource Boundaries: Clear boundaries that separate a specific common-pool resource from a larger social-ecological system are present. 2A. Congruence with Local Conditions: Appropriation and provision rules are congruent with local social and environmental conditions. 2B. Appropriation and Provision: Appropriation rules are congruent with provision rules; the distribution of costs is proportional to the distribution of benefits. 3. Collective Choice Arrangements: Most individuals affected by a resource regime are authorized to participate in making and modifying its rules. 4A. Monitoring Users: Individuals who are accountable to or are the users monitor the appropriation and provision levels of the users. 4B. Monitoring the Resource: Individuals who are accountable to or are the users monitor the condition of the resource. 5. Graduated Sanctions: Sanctions for rule violations start very low but become stronger if a user repeatedly violates a rule. 6. Conflict Resolution Mechanisms: Rapid, low cost, local arenas exist for resolving conflicts among users or with officials. 7. Minimal Recognition of Rights: The rights of local users to make their own rules are recognized by the government. 8. Nested Enterprises: When a common-pool resource is closely connected to a larger socialecological system, governance activities are organized in multiple nested Cox et al 2010 layers. 7

8 Transferrable insights design principles and infrastructure Insight #2 Design principles not standardisation Design principle Detail 2B. Appropriation and Appropriation rules are congruent with provision rules; Provision the distribution of costs is proportional to the distribution of benefits. Payment mechanisms are needed that capture the benefits of non-monetary value and compensate operators appropriately for delivery of these benefits. This might be a challenge when benefits accrue to those outside the defined user boundaries. 3. Collective Choice Most individuals affected by a system are authorized to Arrangements participate in making and modifying its rules One way this could manifest itself is through increasing participation in accounting for social value and tariff setting (to include payment for social value). This is important to ensure that value delivered by the infrastructure scheme remains relevant to the end users. 8

9 Transferrable insights design principles and infrastructure Design principle Detail 4A. Monitoring Users Individuals who are accountable to or are the users monitor the appropriation and provision levels of the users Monitoring condition of infrastructure. Monitoring the contribution of individual projects to national goals, such as carbon emissions reduction, to ensure that local projects also monitor their effect on global resources. 8. Nested Enterprises When a local system is closely connected to a larger system, governance activities are organized in multiple nested layers. The connection between governance of local system and rules for governance of wider infrastructure systems needs to be recognised and articulated. This is also true for the connection between local infrastructure and national infrastructure systems. 9

10 Transferrable insights polycentric governance Insight #3 Polycentric governance is more effective in complex, nested systems National Government Supporting and enabling Local Government Contributing to national goals Contributing to local goals Community energy Connecting and facilitating 10

11 Conclusions and next steps Community energy can produce myriad non-monetary values that are not captured by the current (market-based) governance system Public and common goods require different institutions There is no panacea but design principles might help Polycentric governance is essential in complex, nested systems Next steps: Detailed review of relevance of design principles to real projects can we describe design principles for community energy? National and local governance to support design principles is there an alternative to a market-based system? 11

12 School of something FACULTY OF OTHER Thank you for your attention! Contact: Website: