Operationalizing justice in models used as decision-support tools in local and regional energy transition planning

Abstract

It is widely considered that the energy transition should be just, yet achieving this goal is a complex socio-technical process. Models serve as valuable tools to support decision-making in navigating these complexities. However, they are not adequately equipped to address justice considerations that are becoming central to energy transition planning. They are unable to provide support in decision spaces that are rich in normative uncertainties, with stakeholders holding differing interpretations of what a just energy transition is. While the importance of integrating justice into computational models is recognized, a significant gap remains in understanding how justice is and can be defined, interpreted, and implemented within these models or, in short, how justice can be operationalized. This paper addresses the gap by examining studies that use computational models for decision-support through the lens of the three tenets of energy justice: procedural, recognition, and distributive justice. We argue that operationalizing justice in energy transition modelling can take place both in the modeling process and with the enrichment of model logic. This paper emphasizes that discussions of justice in relation to models cannot be separated from the design of effective participatory modelling settings that stem from a careful evaluation of the justice requirements of stakeholders in the decision space. We propose a framework that enables modellers and model users to be more explicit about their normative interpretations of justice and derive modelling processes and model requirements that represent diverse justice perceptions in the decision space. By doing this, models can refrain from propagating only dominant ideas of justice and instead actively incorporate otherwise neglected perceptions, to ensure that the decision-support facilitates a just energy transition.