The Land Beneath Our Feet

This talk recounts how an Edinburgh research project wound up finding and mapping every street, pavement, car park, and railway line in Great Britain. With all of this transport land mapped, we noticed that a large part of it was dedicated to the movement and storage of cars. In fact, “car space” is more than twice the size of London. If car use were reduced, how might some of this land be repurposed? For example, could we create new parks, public housing, community centres, or even food gardens? And would anyone eat food grown on the street?

What do energy systems have to do with injustice? And can the transition to renewable energy be “just”? Locally developed visions of energy futures in the Orkney Islands in Scotland set the scene for this talk. Imagined, unjust futures were extractive and rooted in the status quo. Just energy futures were underpinned by values of redistribution, solidarity, and collective responsibility. These visions uncover expectations, aspirations and conflicting needs relating to the energy transition. They invite reflection into the risks and opportunities for our future, as we change energy systems.