How well are industrialized nations doing in terms of their energy security? Without a standardized set of metrics, it is difficult to determine the extent to which countries are properly responding to the emerging energy security challenges related to climate change: a growing dependency on...

Modern energy systems have tended towards centralized control by states, and national and multinational energy companies. This implicates the power of elites in realizing low-carbon transitions. In particular, low-carbon transitions can create, perpetuate, challenge, or entrench the power of...

Though it is far from obvious, concepts from justice, philosophy, and ethics can significantly inform energy consumers and producers. This study details how energy justice can serve as a novel conceptual tool for philosophers and ethicists that better integrates usually distinct distributive and...

What theories or concepts are most useful at explaining socio technical change? How can – or cannot – these be integrated? To provide an answer, this study presents the results from 35 semi-structured research interviews with social science experts who also shared more than two hundred...

This study assesses the overall technical, economic, environmental, and social costs and benefits of the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) of natural gas. Drawn from a review of more than 100 studies looking at shale gas in the past 10 years, most of them peer-reviewed, this article begins...

The notion of a ‘policy mix' can describe interactions across a wide range of innovation policies, including ‘motors for creation' as well as for ‘destruction'. This paper focuses on the United Kingdom's (UK) ‘new policy direction' that has weakened support for renewables and energy...

We examine underlying conflicts between technological capabilities and global production networks in South Africa's solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy industries. This includes an analysis of the complex and multi-scalar relationships that exist between international and local...

Transitioning away from our current global energy system is of paramount importance. The speed at which a transition can take place — its timing, or temporal dynamics — is a critical element of consideration. This study therefore investigates the issue of time in global and national energy...