This chapter reviews energy justice and related concepts from a futuristic perspective. It considers ‘what is next?’ for these concepts. In essence, the focus is on the impact of these concepts; the reality is that, in exploring next steps for these concepts, a more united perspective is needed so that scholars in three areas of justice scholarship can increasingly collaborate together. The main reasoning for this is that in the domain of climate, energy and environmental justice, all scholars to some degree have a common goal in terms of impact: all aspire to keep the world within the 1.5 degree Celsius limit in terms of global warming and all are working on the just transition to a low-carbon economy. This chapter, in reviewing critically some of the literature to date, highlights the ‘just transition’ concept and promotes this as a common path forward for increasing public understanding and public acceptance of a just transition to a low-carbon economy. In order to achieve this, these research communities need to unite rather than continuing alone.

The societal context in which the system for managing UK petroleum resources developed is analysed in this chapter. The chapter describes British society in terms of its economy, resources and politics and the related consequences for the UK energy sector, with a focus on the UK oil and gas sector. In addition, there is coverage of the different institutions that relate to the oil and gas industry. Finally, there is a brief analysis of some of the early issues that may result from Brexit and may also affect the UK oil and gas sector.

In this chapter, we introduce energy justice, an emerging transdisciplinary concept capable of tackling complex energy problems. Energy justice is a term that has been used in practice (i.e. in non-academic work, such as in the commercial and public sectors) far longer than in academic research, albeit to a very limited degree. With the emergence of the energy justice concept, two approaches have come to dominate, one that considers energy systems using existing understandings of forms of justice, and one that deciphers its two main principles from the unique characteristics of energy as a good. To differentiate between these two approaches, we call them, respectively, the “system” and “foundational” approaches. The purpose of the chapter is to demonstrate the importance of grappling with issues of justice in any instance of environmental management decision making, to show that there are diverse perspectives that offer tools for doing so specifically in the realm of energy systems management, and to illustrate use of an important research and analytical tool by considering how controversial subjects like fossil fuel-based energy systems can be evaluated using different approaches to energy justice.