From extractivism to community resilience: the promise and perils of Sardinia’s energy transition

The pursuit of global carbon neutrality makes the energy transition process no longer procrastinable. The switch towards renewable-based energy systems is paving the way for new forms of energy governance that prioritise the role of commons by demarketising access to energy. However, governments’ strategies worldwide seem to prioritise innovation in the raw materials (sun, wind, etc.) rather than in governance – favouring the continued extraction of energy from resource-rich regions. This work will analyse the case of Sardinia as an example where these two phenomena intersect contradictorily, by comparing the bottom-up nature of energy communities (ECs) vis-á-vis the top-down nature of public-private initiatives, alongside their policymaking trajectories. The key insights that will stem from this thesis elucidate a continuum with prior top-down policies of economic extractivism operated by the Italian government in Sardinia. Such top-down policies are conceptualised thanks to core and energy periphery theories and can explain the current mainstream regime of energy transition. Alternative strategies to pursue policy are conceptualised thanks to the energy democracy theory. Such theory envisions an active citizen engagement alongside the sustainable consumption of renewable energy and resources within the realm of energy communities. Therefore, the thesis will conclude that although large-scale top-down policies are being operated in the island, with special reference to the energy transition, energy communities can forge bottom-up alternative examples of policymaking, enabling an energy transition that can cross-tackle long-standing problems of Sardinian society, such as a stagnant economy, depopulation, self-determination, issues of land, landscapes, and pollution.