Citizen Participation-Based Energy Transition Experiments in a Megacity: The Case of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant in Seoul, South Korea

Seoul, one of the world’s megacities, has been working since April 26, 2012, towards building an energy self-sufficient and climate-protective city through conservation of energy, improvement of energy efficiency, and expansion of renewable energy use in face of climate change and energy crises under the name of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant. This study examines how citizens in Seoul were involved in the OLNPP initiative and what factors have led to the involvement of citizens, resulting in the successful performance of the OLNPP, based on concepts of emancipatory catastrophism and metamorphosis proposed by Ulrich Beck and energy citizenship. This study finds out deliberative governance, political leadership, transparent information sharing and interactive communication with citizens, experts and NGO activist as policy advisors and facilitators, educational programs are major factors contributing successful performance of the OLNPP. The grand experiment Seoul has conducted is still on-going.