PhD defence: Energy Justice as a Governance Challenge

On Friday 17 April 2026 at 12 pm., Kees van der Wel will defend his PhD thesis Energy Justice as a Governance Challenge. Why the energy transition worsens inequities and what to do about it.

The energy transition is now in full swing. Governments around the world are playing a major role in this transformation by deploying a wide range of policies for the transition to sustainable energy systems. For some people, these efforts have brought clear benefits: they now live in well-insulated homes with solar panels on the roof and electric vehicles on their doorstep. However, many socioeconomically disadvantaged groups still live in poorly insulated homes and struggle to afford electricity, gas and fuel to meet their daily energy needs. 

Public efforts for the energy transition risk exacerbating existing inequalities. Governments recognise this gap and express ambitions for energy justice, but in practice it is difficult to achieve those ambitions.

In his dissertation, Kees van der Wel investigates why this is the case within the Dutch context and how governments can make their policies fairer. He follows the objective of energy justice from policy ambition to concrete measures, and sees three main governance challenges emerge:
 

• Unclear objectives: Concepts such as justice or equality are so broad that they are easily ignored or misinterpreted in decision-making. Clear, specific goals are needed to give direction. Consider, for example, specific target values for reducing the number of energy-poor households, or clear preconditions such as the mandatory allocation of a minimum percentage of subsidies to socio-economically vulnerable groups.
  
  
• No anchoring in policy processes: Even when goals have been formulated, they often remain symbolic. Integration into daily policy practice – through assessment criteria, monitoring systems and feedback – is essential to effectively align policy with equity.
   
• Limited effectiveness of policy strategies: The government can apply different strategies: develop its own programmes, stimulate the market or collaborate with various parties. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses. No strategy guarantees energy justice, and every choice entails inevitable trade-offs, such as between customization and strict accountability. As a result, the final choice for a strategy is always a political decision.

Cohesive, continuous effort needed

Van der Wel concludes that energy justice can only be achieved by a coherent, continuous effort: clarifying goals, firmly anchoring them in policy and continuing to learn from implementation. By connecting insights from public administration with energy justice, the research offers tools for governments that want to help socio-economically disadvantaged groups to participate and benefit in the energy transition.

Kees van der Wel is a post doc researcher at Tilburg University is and a PhD student at the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.

Streaming video

You can follow this PhD defence via streaming video: