Reducing energy demand through low carbon innovation: A sociotechnical transitions perspective and thirteen research debates

TLDR

Energy efficiency improvements and demand reductions are projected to account for more than half of future global carbon emission cuts, yet achieving these reductions requires systemic transformations beyond the marginal focus of traditional economic and psychological models. The authors contend that a socio‑technical transitions perspective is better equipped to tackle the complexity of these challenges. This perspective frames energy services as delivered by large, capital‑intensive infrastructures that co‑evolve with technologies, institutions, skills, knowledge, and behaviors, and the paper outlines thirteen debates across emergence, diffusion, impact, and cross‑cutting themes to guide research.

Abstract

Improvements in energy efficiency and reductions in energy demand are expected to contribute more than half of the reduction in global carbon emissions over the next few decades. These unprecedented reductions require transformations in the systems that provide energy services. However, the dominant analytical perspectives, grounded in neoclassical economics and social psychology, focus upon marginal changes and provide only limited guidance on how such transformations may occur and how they can be shaped. We argue that a socio-technical transitions perspective is more suited to address the complexity of the challenges involved. This perspective understands energy services as being provided through large-scale, capital intensive and long-lived infrastructures that co-evolve with technologies, institutions, skills, knowledge and behaviours to create broader 'sociotechnical systems’. To provide guidance for research in this area, this paper identifies and describes thirteen debates in socio-technical transitions research, organized under the headings of emergence, diffusion and impact, as well as more synthetic cross-cutting issues.