Community energy initiatives as drivers for degrowth? An empirical investigation of their alignment with five imperatives of degrowth

Les initiatives énergétiques communautaires, moteurs de la décroissance ? Une étude empirique de leur alignement sur les cinq impératifs de la décroissance

Jan Zeiss, Valeria Schwanitz, August Wierling, Timothy Marcroft, Constantin von Beck and Arnaud Diemer
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Jan Zeiss: CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne
Arnaud Diemer: CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne

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Abstract: In view of the emerging social, environmental and economic crises, the degrowth movement questions the current growth paradigm. The fundamental criticism put forth by degrowth is that unlimited growth cannot be sustained within the planetary boundaries. Citizen-owned and democratically controlled Community Energy Initiatives (CEI) engage since many years in the sustainable energy transition. This paper investigates to what extent they align with the degrowth movement. Drawing from an inventory of over 10000 European Community Energy Initiatives, we go beyond the few case studies and theoretical think-pieces. We test potential alignment by empirically investigating indicators for the following degrowth imperatives: (1) Reduce environmental impact, (2) Re-orient economic priorities, (3) Reduce inequality (4) Foster democratic decision making, and (5) Re-localize production and consumption. The results suggest a strong alignment with the environmental impact reduction, democratic decision making, and relocalized production and consumption imperatives, while the alignment with the economic re-orientation and inequality reduction imperatives varies considerably across countries and types of initiatives.

Keywords: Community; energy; Energy; cooperatives; Degrowth; Energy; transition; European; Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05-05
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05110749v1
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Published in Journal of Cleaner Production, 2025, 513, ⟨10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145612⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05110749

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145612

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