TY - CHAP
T1 - Introduction
T2 - New directions in energy demand research
AU - Jenkins, Kirsten
AU - Sorrell, Steven
AU - Hopkins, Debbie
AU - Roberts, Cameron
N1 - The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons AttributionNon Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
PY - 2018/12/20
Y1 - 2018/12/20
N2 - 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. This chapter introduces the main themes of the book, including explorations of the processes and mechanisms through which different types of innovations become (or fail to become) established, the identification of the role of different groups, assessments of the resulting impacts on energy demand and other social goals, and the development of recommendations for both encouraging the diffusion of such innovations and maximising their long-term impact.
AB - 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. This chapter introduces the main themes of the book, including explorations of the processes and mechanisms through which different types of innovations become (or fail to become) established, the identification of the role of different groups, assessments of the resulting impacts on energy demand and other social goals, and the development of recommendations for both encouraging the diffusion of such innovations and maximising their long-term impact.
U2 - 10.4324/9781351127264-1
DO - 10.4324/9781351127264-1
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9781351127257
VL - 1
T3 - Routledge Studies in Energy Transitions
SP - 1
EP - 13
BT - Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand
PB - Routledge
ER -