Energy citizenship as people’s perceived (collective) rights and responsibilities in a just and sustainable energy transition – scale development and validation

Abstract

The concept of energy citizenship (i.e., “people’s belief that they as individuals and as collectives have rights and responsibilities for a just and sustainable energy transition, and their motivation to act upon those rights and responsibilities” Hamann et al., 2023, p. 3) is central for achieving energy and climate goals by involving citizens in the energy transition. The European Commission therefore strives for policies and interventions to increase energy citizenship. Yet, a concise and practically useable scale to measure energy citizenship in individuals is still lacking. The aim of this paper is to develop and validate a scale to reliably measure people’s level of energy citizenship. Based on a literature search and expert review, we developed an item pool that was narrowed down after a pre study (N = 51). We then tested the resulting scale in four empirical studies (including two preregistered studies) conducted in Austria and the Netherlands (overall N = 2705). We found support for the factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion validity. This scale enables quantitative assessment of energy citizenships and builds a base for evidence-based interventions and policies.