Resource Management and Development

The significant, but still under-theorized aspect of modern resource management and development discourse is spatial disparities in the access to renewable and non-renewable resources. This paper discusses the degree, form and consequences of geographically differentiated access to the energy resources, with specific attention to the way in which such disparities are defining the environmental quality, socio-economic performance, and sustainability development pathways. The study follows a comparative, spatially oriented approach to methodology, which is built on secondary empirical evidence, and integrates the results of peer-reviewed articles on the use of renewable energy, non-renewable resources dependence, ecological footprint, and imbalances in regional development. The discussion shows that the availability of renewable resources is also conventionally clustered in economically developed and institutionally strong regions whereas peripheral and non-developed regions remain, disproportionately, dependent on non-renewable resources that are highly polluting. These spatial inequalities produce cumulative and path-dependent processes, which further entrench interregional differences in environmental conditions, human capital formation, and the capacity to be innovative. The paper also shows that renewable energy transitions, where they are instituted without any explicit spatial equity, threaten to replicate current patterns of socio-environmental marginalization. The results highlight the need to have integrated and equity-based resource governance models that anticipate spatial justice as one of the fundamental principles of sustainable development. The study, by redefining resource access as a form of inherently political and spatial phenomenon, would add to more inclusive and conflict-sensitive ways of managing and developing resources.