Energy Justice, Sustainability, and Local Climate Action Planning: A Case Study from Türkiye

This study examines the extent to which energy justice principles are incorporated into local climate governance across six Turkish coastal metropolitan municipalities: Istanbul, Bursa, Kocaeli, Izmir, Antalya, and Trabzon. Using a mixed-methods design that combines qualitative policy analysis with a purpose-built Energy Justice Index (EJI), the study evaluates distributive, procedural, and recognition justice provisions within Climate Action Plans (CAPs) and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs). The findings indicate that local climate planning in Türkiye remains predominantly focused on technical and emissions-oriented objectives, offering comparatively limited attention to democratic participation and the needs of vulnerable populations. Quantitatively, the municipalities exhibit a low mean EJI score of 30.2 out of 100 and a mean Technocracy Gap of 15.7 points, alongside a universal absence of monitoring mechanisms for vulnerable groups (R3 = 0 across all cases). Procedural justice emerged as the weakest dimension, while recognition justice was frequently limited to identifying vulnerable groups without corresponding monitoring. The study contributes to energy justice scholarship by developing a municipal-level assessment framework and introducing the Technocracy Gap as an exploratory indicator of the balance between technical climate ambition and justice-oriented governance provisions. It further proposes a rights-based governance approach for more just local climate planning.