Stakeholder engagement in natural resources for energy transitions governance
Ziyan Han, Yongping Wei, Kim A. Johnston, Brian Head
Abstract
Energy transition is one of the demands for resource management towards sustainability. It is increasingly recognized that this transition would not justly happen without effective stakeholder engagement (SE). Assessing the impact of SE and its relationship with SE configuration is imperative for understanding dynamics that may promote or hinder stakeholders' contribution to the transition. This paper systemically and quantitatively investigates whether and how the configuration of SE affects its impacts with globally scattered 1119 cases of SE in resources management including clean energy. It was found that 1) most participation with minimal or no meaningful impact in terms of both depth and scale; 2) the phase element in configuration, especially participants involved in a more empowered stage, have the strongest influence on the impacts. As a relatively recent phenomenon, stakeholders in clean energy governance were often involved in the early planning and designing phase, far from being impactful. 3) the purpose, participants, and methods had a less prominent impact. These findings can inform SE in the energy transition by configuring large-impact and high-justness SE elements.