Corinthias P. M. Sianipar

Justice and sustainability are the foundation of fair and equitable biofuel development. Policies and practices are consequently necessary to support a just transition towards a low-carbon economy. Therefore, this study aimed to understand multi-actor perspectives on policies and practices relevant to the just transition in biofuel development. Applying a socio-legal approach based on the JUST framework, this study focused on the Indonesian biofuel industry, which is primarily driven by crude palm oil (CPO) production. This study also added comparative perspectives from Thailand’s biofuel industry. The primary data were gathered from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs), while the secondary data were from research, policy, and other government archives. Based on the results, oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Thailand are crucial for macroeconomic development. However, smallholder farmers in Indonesia, especially independent ones that do not join farmer groups, remain marginalised by the current regulations. In fact, many benefits from biofuel practices and policies accumulate disproportionately towards large corporations, while marginalised groups bear the costs. The Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification that should induce market accessibility and competitiveness has not fully reached most rural farmers. Furthermore, various overlapping regulations and perplexing data differences exist from multiple ministries and administrative levels. Thus, palm oil stakeholders in Indonesia demand a dedicated institution for integrated regulation and monitoring of the industry, similar to the National Palm Oil Policy Committee in Thailand. The myriad of legal, political, socio-economic, and justice issues thus necessitates all hands on deck to ensure a just transition for all stakeholders of the Indonesian biofuel industry.

The intrinsic relation between water and energy has made the water–energy nexus a burgeoning issue in the discussion of sustainable development. Recently, research has begun to pay attention to stakeholders in the nexus. They, however, identified stakeholders as a given without employing methodically scientific processes with rigorous parameters. Filling in the gap, this study presents a heuristic approach to identifying critical stakeholders of multi-actor systems in the water–energy nexus. It involves three sources of influence (social roles, specific concerns, and key problems) along with four other boundary issues (motivation, control, knowledge, legitimacy), forming a matrix of the boundary categories of Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH). This study applied the heuristic analysis to the project of floating photovoltaics installed in a pond in Hyogo, Japan, as the case study. It is a unique case of the water–energy nexus since the location of the floatovoltaic installation is a privately owned pond that is also part of the public landscape and an irrigation source for the surrounding agricultural areas. The results identified two macrogroups of stakeholders (residents and project developers) driven by general interests in the project. They were derivable as overlapping micro-actors interested in more specific issues related to different facets of the project. Overall, conflicting interests in the multi-actor systems indicated deadlocked interactions due to a multidirectional tug-of-war between the microgroups of actors. Conceptually, this study significantly contributes to the literature on the water–energy nexus and stakeholder management. Practically, the approach used offers scientific processes to understand the multi-actor systems and conflicting interests involved in/affected by the nexus, paving the way for more comprehensive resolution processes of water–energy conflicts.