Barney Andrew, Polatidis Heracles, Vakalis Stergios, Grondin Dominique, Benne Michel, Salces Fausto Sainz, Haralambopoulos Dias
Uppsala University, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Cramérgatan 3, 621 57, Visby, Sweden.
University of the Aegean, Dept. of Environment, University Hill, 81100, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
Heliyon. 2023 Sep 9;9(9):e19960. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19960. eCollection 2023 Sep.
The consequences of climate change and reduced energy security are becoming increasingly apparent, especially on islands. At the same time, the energy transition is quickly spreading and its value to society becoming clearer. Two main obstacles to this transition, rigid policy and lack of local understanding, are particularly troubling on islands, where national policies often aren't flexible enough to consider local particularities and residents are exposed to different energy realities from those on the mainland. Using exploratory interviews and a survey on four islands, this article considers island residents' awareness of energy transition concepts and presents how it interacts with, and is potentially influenced by, relevant energy policies at the national level. The paper presents the comparative results for the geographically, demographically and climatologically diverse islands of Gotland (Sweden), Lesvos (Greece), La Réunion (France) and Mallorca (Spain) to focus on European island energy transitions. Differences were noted between the islands' residents with regards to awareness of and willingness to use specific energy transition tools or to join activities like energy communities. Additionally, differences were noted between the islands for what was the most important reason to consider when using demand response, though 'Ease of use' was important across all. The potential reasons for differences among the islands are discussed and suggestions to increase consumer engagement with energy transition activities on islands are given. Overall, the results show that while awareness of energy concepts isn't greater on these European islands, interest in prospective transition actions was high and provide an opportunity for planners to capitalize on. However, if there are potential policy obstacles, these higher levels of interest cannot ensure higher levels of willingness to engage. Taken together, these two findings indicate the potential for an acceleration of transition activity on these islands, and potentially beyond, should engagement with island residents be increased along with review, and amendment of policies impeding it.
气候变化和能源安全降低的后果日益明显，在岛屿地区尤为如此。与此同时，能源转型正在迅速蔓延，其对社会的价值也日益清晰。这一转型的两个主要障碍，即僵化的政策和缺乏地方理解，在岛屿地区尤其令人困扰，因为国家政策往往不够灵活，无法考虑地方特殊性，而且岛上居民面临的能源现实与大陆居民不同。本文通过对四个岛屿进行探索性访谈和调查，考察了岛屿居民对能源转型概念的认识，并展示了这种认识如何与国家层面的相关能源政策相互作用以及可能受到其影响。本文呈现了瑞典哥特兰岛、希腊莱斯博斯岛、法国留尼汪岛和西班牙马略卡岛在地理、人口和气候方面各不相同的岛屿的比较结果，以聚焦欧洲岛屿的能源转型。在对特定能源转型工具的认识和使用意愿或加入能源社区等活动方面，各岛屿居民之间存在差异。此外，在使用需求响应时应考虑的最重要原因方面，各岛屿也存在差异，不过“易用性”在所有岛屿上都很重要。本文讨论了各岛屿之间存在差异的潜在原因，并给出了提高消费者参与岛屿能源转型活动的建议。总体而言，结果表明，虽然这些欧洲岛屿上居民对能源概念的认识并不更高，但对未来转型行动的兴趣很高，这为规划者提供了可利用的机会。然而，如果存在潜在的政策障碍，这些更高的兴趣水平并不能确保更高的参与意愿。综合来看，这两个发现表明，如果加强与岛屿居民的互动，并对阻碍转型的政策进行审查和修订，这些岛屿以及可能其他地区的转型活动有可能加速。
