How do we get (Energy) Justice into our Models?

Workshop
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  • genre: break‑out‑group
  • title: How do we get (Energy) Justice into our Models?
  • presenter: @mhoffmann
  • description: In previous openmod workshops people exchanged on including societal factors and critical thinking into our research. This time, we want to explore how we can look at issues of justice with our models. For this, we bring the results of a literature review we are currently finalizing, and introduce you to model integration, methods, and indicators. We combine this input session with discussing your attempts to bring justice into your models. As a final step, we plan to split up into groups to develop research ideas based on your interest.
  • background: @mhoffmann researches as a PhD student of the graduate school EnergySystemTransition of the Reiner Lemoine Foundation. She is affiliated with the Reiner Lemoine Institut and FossilExit. I am researching how to integrate justice into energy planning.
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Grenoble workshop 2024: registration and details
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To all workshop participants of today: Thank you so much for your active participation :slight_smile:!

This post summarizes the workshop by providing the input presentation and the results of the mentimeter survey.
2024-03-28-OpenMod-Workshop-Input-Part.pdf (851.3 KB)
2023-03-06-Miro-Martha-Hoffmann-OpenMod-Justice-In-Modelling.pdf (2.6 MB)

Please note that the link to the WebApp is intentionally not shared here, as it is work in progress and not intended to be spread more at this stage!

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the workshop. I will upload notes of the breakout groups regarding the paper ideas at a later time.

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hi @mhoffmann I work in Berlin at the Green Web Foundation, and I’m interested in learing more about the Literature Review WebApp.

Where should I go to learn more? I’m reachable at chris [at] greenweb.org to chat further, if you’d be interested in following up.

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Probably the most common way of adding normative values to models is through duly informed storylines and then on to runnable scenarios.

More specifically, energy justice is often framed as a distributional issue within societies or across nations and thus amenable to mathematical expression.

It would be nice to have a heads‑up on the work being undertaken at the Reiner Lemoine Institute.

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Thank you @mrchrisadams and @robbie.morrison for your (continued) interest! We are currently working on finalizing our review paper on justice in energy modelling. Will definitly post something here when the paper is submitted and when the WebApp is open for public use! :slight_smile:

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Finally! Years after starting the review, our review paper has been published in Energy Policy!

The structured literature review in illustrates the indicators and methods to integrate justice both for energy modelers and social scientists. Key outputs:

  • Energy modeling can be used to identify, predict, and mitigate injustices
  • A multitude of methods and indicators address justice in energy models
  • Interconnecting concepts with real-world applications increases energy policy relevance
  • Toolkit how to address justice in energy modelling along research motivations
  • Paper and indicator database: here

Graphical-Summary
Graphical-Summary3630×2934 1.02 MB

Details of the assessment

  • Model types: Energy System Models, Integrated Assessment Models, Economic Modeling Frameworks, Agent Based Models, Formulaic Calculations as well as Correlations and Regressions
    • Modelling steps: Input, Processing, Output
    • Indicator groups: Affordability and energy poverty, societal costs and benefits, health and environment, ownership, income and wealth, employment, social acceptance, legislative recognition as well as availability and energy access
    • Method types: Scenario building, groups, parameterization, penalty factors, monetization of harms, stakeholder input, data preparation, objective function, constraints, simulations, inequality distributions, quantiles, inequality factors, indices, statistical analysis

You can find the Find the open access paper “How to include justice in energy modeling? A review of indicators and methods” here

If you want to share the research with collegues, you could also use the linkedin post

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@mhoffmann: good work! There is now an article on Wikipedia EN covering energy justice. So I just added some material from Hoffmann et al (2026) as a first step: external links.

The associated references in full for easier reference: