Delina Authors New Article on Energy Transitions in Thailand

Laurence Delina, a postdoctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, authored a recent paper titled “Energy democracy in a continuum: Remaking public engagement on energy transitions in Thailand” in the journal Energy Research & Social Science. 

In the paper, Delina explores how to achieve sustainable energy transitions “inclusively, fairly, and justly” in non-democratic countries. Focusing on non-democratic Thailand, he shows how community-oriented energy transitions can occur outside of government-led forums of public engagement.

This paper follows the publication of a perspective article published in Frontiers in Environmental Science last month in which Delina, again drawing on his work in Thailand, argues that energy democracy — the idea of citizens leading energy transitions in small groups of households for social and economic purposes — can thrive in non-democratic countries.

At the Pardee Center, Delina leads a research project called The Future of Energy Systems in Developing Countries, which seeks to understand the options and trade-offs for achieving a secure and sustainable energy future in a select number of developing countries. He is the author of two recent books, Strategies for Rapid Climate Mitigation: Wartime mobilisation as a model for action? (Routledge 2016) and Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition(s) in Developing Countries: The challenges of climate change and sustainable development (Routledge 2017). He also recently guest edited, with Pardee Center Director Anthony Janetos, a special issue of the journal Energy Research and Social Science (Vol. 35, January 2018) consisting of 24 accounts, stories, narratives, and perspectives on the futures of energy systems.