112
perform work that helps enable sustainable energy transitions by working
their way into specific policies and indicators within sectors such as transport. They drive future priorities by linking them to concrete objectives
that can be measured (zero growth) and punished or rewarded (through
urban transport infrastructure budget allocation). This relational analysis
of policy-making and the operationalisation of targets highlights the value
of prefigurative politics. Accountability analysis of this case contributes a
valuable reconsideration of the role of targets in legitimating gradual but
incremental climate mitigation action. Rather than challenging the existing sectoral configuration outright, targets work performatively to reorient
its workings through the very routine, normalised structures and processes
that shape sectoral futures.
9.2.4 For Benjamin Sovacool
The case is the advent of electric mobility in the five Nordic countries. As
power from the electric grid is based on renewable energy to large extents
in these contexts, this shift from fossil fuel powered vehicles to grid
charged ones constitutes a prima facie energy transition. But Sovacool’s
analysis of electric vehicle roll-out problematises this assumption, and flags
four crises of accountability. The first concerns inequitable access to electric vehicles, which so far largely remain the preserve of privileged people
even in these relatively wealthy countries. The second points out that
exclusion is reflected in national planning around electric mobility, which
risks making people dependent on distant infrastructures (like electric
charging stations) on terms beyond their democratic control. The third
crisis is on multiple spatial scales and pertains to the creation of externalities at remote sites of material extraction to build electric vehicles, as well
as the risk of relocating pollution from cities to regional sites of electric
power production. The fourth crisis features the burden on some sectoral
stakeholders such as fuelling stations that might have to invest in costly
charging station infrastructure or risk job loss and vehicle dealerships that
might have to invest more time and effort into electric vehicle sales.
Sovacool argues that these crises, while perhaps inevitable components of
shifting sectoral regimes, stem from the uneven effects of transition
dynamics on different actors, and from inequities that are deeply embedded within existing systems of mobility.
This case draws out a host of instances of discursive legitimation, most
notably from people challenging the roll-out of electric vehicles in terms
S. SAREEN
perform work that helps enable sustainable energy transitions by working
their way into specific policies and indicators within sectors such as transport. They drive future priorities by linking them to concrete objectives
that can be measured (zero growth) and punished or rewarded (through
urban transport infrastructure budget allocation). This relational analysis
of policy-making and the operationalisation of targets highlights the value
of prefigurative politics. Accountability analysis of this case contributes a
valuable reconsideration of the role of targets in legitimating gradual but
incremental climate mitigation action. Rather than challenging the existing sectoral configuration outright, targets work performatively to reorient
its workings through the very routine, normalised structures and processes
that shape sectoral futures.
9.2.4 For Benjamin Sovacool
The case is the advent of electric mobility in the five Nordic countries. As
power from the electric grid is based on renewable energy to large extents
in these contexts, this shift from fossil fuel powered vehicles to grid
charged ones constitutes a prima facie energy transition. But Sovacool’s
analysis of electric vehicle roll-out problematises this assumption, and flags
four crises of accountability. The first concerns inequitable access to electric vehicles, which so far largely remain the preserve of privileged people
even in these relatively wealthy countries. The second points out that
exclusion is reflected in national planning around electric mobility, which
risks making people dependent on distant infrastructures (like electric
charging stations) on terms beyond their democratic control. The third
crisis is on multiple spatial scales and pertains to the creation of externalities at remote sites of material extraction to build electric vehicles, as well
as the risk of relocating pollution from cities to regional sites of electric
power production. The fourth crisis features the burden on some sectoral
stakeholders such as fuelling stations that might have to invest in costly
charging station infrastructure or risk job loss and vehicle dealerships that
might have to invest more time and effort into electric vehicle sales.
Sovacool argues that these crises, while perhaps inevitable components of
shifting sectoral regimes, stem from the uneven effects of transition
dynamics on different actors, and from inequities that are deeply embedded within existing systems of mobility.
This case draws out a host of instances of discursive legitimation, most
notably from people challenging the roll-out of electric vehicles in terms
S. SAREEN