Countries around the world are prioritising net zero emissions to meet their Paris Agreement goals. The demand for social impact assessment (SIA) is likely to grow as this transition will require investments in decarbonisation projects with speed and at scale. There will be winners and losers of these projects because not everyone benefits the same; and hence, trade-offs are inevitable. SIAs, therefore, should focus on understanding how the risks and benefits will be distributed among and within stakeholders and sectors and enable the identification of trade-offs that are just and fair. In this study, we used a hypothetical case of large-scale hydrogen production in regional Australia and engaged with multi-disciplinary experts to identify justice issues in transitioning to such an industry. Using Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness, we identified several tensions between different groups (national, regional, local, inter and intra-communities) and sectors (environmental and economic) concerning the establishment of a hydrogen industry. These stakeholders and sectors will be disproportionately affected by this establishment. We argue that Rawlsian principles of justice would enable the practice of SIA to identify justice trade-offs. Further, we conceptualise that a systems approach will be critical to facilitate a wider participation, and an agile process for achieving just trade-offs in SIA.

中文翻译：

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只是净零转型和社会影响评估之间的权衡


世界各国都在优先考虑净零排放，以实现《巴黎协定》的目标。对社会影响评估（SIA）的需求可能会增长，因为这种转变需要快速、大规模地投资脱碳项目。这些项目将会有赢家和输家，因为并非每个人都受益相同；因此，权衡是不可避免的。因此，SIA 应重点了解利益相关者和部门之间以及内部如何分配风险和收益，并能够确定公正和公平的权衡。在这项研究中，我们使用了澳大利亚地区大规模氢气生产的假设案例，并与多学科专家合作，以确定向此类行业转型的正义问题。利用罗尔斯正义即公平理论，我们发现了不同群体（国家、地区、地方、社区间和社区内）和部门（环境和经济）之间关于建立氢工业的一些紧张关系。这些利益相关者和部门将受到该机构的不成比例的影响。我们认为，罗尔斯的正义原则将使 SIA 的实践能够确定正义的权衡。此外，我们认为系统方法对于促进更广泛的参与至关重要，而敏捷流程对于实现 SIA 的公正权衡至关重要。