Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781351127264, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Meeting the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels demands rapid reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing energy demand has a central role in achieving this goal, but existing policy initiatives have been largely incremental in terms of the technological and behavioural changes they encourage. Against this background, this book develops a sociotechnical approach to the challenge of reducing energy demand and illustrates this with a number of empirical case studies from the United Kingdom. In doing so, it explores the emergence, diffusion and impact of low-energy innovations, including electric vehicles and smart meters. The book has the dual aim of improving the academic understanding of sociotechnical transitions and energy demand and providing practical recommendations for public policy. Combining an impressive range of contributions from key thinkers in the field, this book will be of great interest to energy students, scholars and decision-makers.

Kirsten E. H. Jenkins is a Lecturer in Human Geography and Sustainable Development within the School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, UK. Debbie Hopkins is jointly appointed by the Transport Studies Unit and the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford (UK) as a Departmental Research Lecturer.

List of Figures List of Tables Preface List of Contributors 1. Introduction: New directions in energy demand research Kirsten E. H. Jenkins, Steven Sorrell, Debbie Hopkins and Cameron Roberts Part 1: Analytical perspectives 2. Of emergence, diffusion and impact: A sociotechnical perspective on researching energy demand Frank W. Geels, Benjamin K. Sovacool and Steven Sorrell 3. A normative approach to transitions in energy demand: An energy justice and fuel poverty case study Kirsten E. H. Jenkins and Mari Martiskainen Part 2: The emergence and diffusion of innovations 4. Electric vehicles and the future of personal mobility in the United Kingdom Noam Bergman 5. Experimentation with vehicle automation Debbie Hopkins and Tim Schwanen 6. The United Kingdom smart meter rollout through an energy justice lens Kirsten E. H. Jenkins, Benjamin K. Sovacool and Sabine Hielscher 7. Overcoming the systemic challenges of retrofitting residential buildings in the United Kingdom, A herculean task? Donal Brown, Paula Kivimaa, Jan Rosenow and Mari Martiskainen Part 3: Societal impacts and co-benefits 8. Exergy economics: New insights into energy consumption and economic growth Paul Brockway, Steve Sorrell, Tim Foxon and Jack Miller 9. Energy saving innovations and economy wide rebound effects Gioele Figus, Karen Turner and Antonios Katris Part 4: Policy mixes and implications 10. Political acceleration of sociotechnical transitions: Lessons from four historical case studies Cameron Roberts and Frank W. Geels 11. The challenge of effective energy efficiency policy in the United Kingdom Janette Webb 12. Policy mixes for sustainable energy transitions: The case of energy efficiency Florian Kern, Paula Kivimaa, Karoline Rogge and Jan Rosenow 13. Managing energy and climate transitions in theory and practice: A critical systematic review of Strategic Niche Management Kirsten E. H. Jenkins and Benjamin K. Sovacool Part 5: Conclusion 14. Conclusions: towards systematic reductions in energy demand Kirsten E. H. Jenkins, Debbie Hopkins and Cameron Roberts Index