Autor: Gerardo Costabile Nicoletta

Università della Calabria

 

Autor: Simone Guglielmelli

Università della Calabria 

 

Autor: Valeria Tarditi

Università della Calabria

 

Modalidad: Presencial

 

Abstract: 

The energy transition constitutes a multidimensional and multi-sectoral phenomenon. It is a process that touches upon economic, social, and institutional changes involving the distribution of costs and benefits. As a complex issue, it is subject to various conceptualisations and interpretations that give rise to different frames emphasizing economic, climate or national sovereignty aspects, respectively. While the complex nature of the phenomenon has attracted the attention of a growing socio-political literature, the connections between the processes of politicisation at the national and local level have been less investigated. However, the desirability of the energy transition often collides with issues that emerge at the territorial level concerning the implementation of medium or large-scale renewable energy plants. Literature has highlighted how RES are objects of local conflicts expressing a Nimby syndrome, while others have focused on the social acceptance of new energy technologies. Others have concentrated on more structural aspects linked to the renewable energy sector by which loosely local regulatory frameworks and market-oriented policies give rise to a new green extractivism in marginal and rural areas, fostering distributive and procedural energy injustice. Starting from a critical discussion of selected literature, the paper analyses, according to comparative perspectives, conflicts related to the policy initiatives regarding the development of the renewable energy sector in two Southern Italian regions, namely Calabria and Campania. Southern territories of Italy are currently the primary target for the location of new renewable energy projects for two main sets of reasons: one of a natural order, related to greater wind and solar exposure associated with a high rate of non-productive hectares of land, and one of a social order represented by low population density, the need to attract investments to support public finance and economy, and a general weakness of the social context. Through a discursive approach interpreting political conflicts as “argumentative struggles” (Hajer 1995), the paper investigates conflicting argumentative discourses for or against the construction of RES facilities in local contexts. More specifically, it will inquire into which arguments appear to be dominant and what are the connections to broader frames on energy transition. Based on this analysis, the research addresses the differences and similarities between conflicts regarding different types of RES in different Southern regions. Through the qualitative content analysis of interviews with policy actors and documents produced by local committees, RES companies and regional governments, the paper reconstructs competing discourses around renewable energy development policy in the Southern regions, showing their connections with more general frames of the energy transition. Finally, it proposes new questions regarding the relations between actors within the energy policy arena at the local and national levels