Energy Justice Resources

The energy system of the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly in the developed world, is largely responsible for the climate change we see today.

Transforming energy systems is not just about changing the source of fuel or disseminating new technology, although both of those clearly play a role.  It is also about recognizing where the negative impacts of today's and tomorrow's systems hit.  Avoiding the worst impacts requires identifying where those worst impacts fall. And when we examine those impacts, we see that they are not distributed equally across society. The mission to address the uneven distribution of energy and climate impacts is the mission of energy justice.  

This page contains suggested reading to help you better understand the concept of energy justice, get to know some of the major practitioners and issues in this space, and begin to help dismantle the policies and business-as-usual practices that perpetuate unequal sharing of energy services and inequitable harms from energy policy and infrastructure.

• Initiative for Energy Justice (includes workbook and scorecard for policymakers)
• Urban Energy Justice Lab at the University of Michigan
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan (2023-28)

Heffron, Raphael J., and Darren McCauley. "The Concept of Energy Justice Across the Disciplines." Energy Policy 105 (June 2017): 658–67. 
Jenkins, Kirsten, Darren McCauley, Raphael Heffron, Hannes Stephan, and Robert Rehner. "Energy Justice: A Conceptual Review." Energy Research & Social Science 11 (January 2016): 174–82. 
Jenkins, Kirsten E H, Benjamin K Sovacool, Niek Mouter, Nick Hacking, Mary-Kate Burns, and Darren McCauley. "The Methodologies, Geographies, and Technologies of Energy Justice: A Systematic and Comprehensive Review." Environ. Res. Lett., March 30, 2021, 25.
Reames, Tony Gerard. "Targeting Energy Justice: Exploring Spatial, Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Urban Residential Heating Energy Efficiency." Energy Policy 97 (October 2016): 549–58. 
Sovacool, Benjamin K., Matthew Burke, Lucy Baker, Chaitanya Kumar Kotikalapudi, and Holle Wlokasd. "New Frontiers and Conceptual Frameworks for Energy Justice." Energy Policy 105 (March 2017): 677-91. 

• Baker, Shalanda. Revolutionary Power: An Activist's Guide to the Energy Transition. (2021). Island Press.
• McCauley, Darren. Energy Justice: Re-Balancing the Trilemma of Security, Poverty and Climate Change. (2018). Springer.  
• Sovacool, Benjamin K., and Michael H. Dworkin. Global Energy Justice:  Problems, Principles, and Practices. (2014). Cambridge University Press.
• Stephens, Jennie. Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy. (2020). Island Press.
• Szeman, Imre and Dominic Boyer. Energy Humanities: An Anthology. (2017). Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Fossil Fuels are Bad for Your Health and Harmful in Many Ways Besides Climate Change (The Conversation)
• Racial Disparities Persist in Electric Service. Is 'Willful Blindness' to Blame? (Energy News)
• Report: "Energy Burden" on Low-Income, African American, & Latino Households up to Three Times as High as Other Homes, More Energy Efficiency Needed (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)
• We Must Tackle Global Energy Inequality Before It's Too Late  (The Guardian)
• The Racial Inequity in Clean Energy and How to Fight It (Inside Climate News )
• Why Rich People Use So Much More Energy (Vox)
• Study Links Gas Flares to Preterm Births, With Hispanic Women at High Risk (New York Times)
• Report: Universal Access to Sustainable Energy Will Remain Elusive Without Addressing Inequalities (World Bank News)