Experiments in climate governance – lessons from a systematic review of case studies in transition research

Experimentation has been proposed as one of the ways in which public policy can drive sustainability transitions, notably by creating or delimiting space for experimenting with innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. In this paper we report on a systematic review of articles published between 2009 and 2015 that have addressed experiments aiming either at understanding decarbonisation transitions or enhancing climate resilience. Using the case survey method, we find few empirical descriptions of real-world experiments in climate and energy contexts in the scholarly literature, being observed in only 25 articles containing 29 experiments. We discuss the objectives, outputs and outcomes of these experiments noting that explicit experimenting with climate policies could be identified only in 12 cases. Based on the results we suggest a definition of climate policy experiments and a typology of experiments for sustainability transitions that can be used to better understand the role of and learn more effectively from experiments in sustainability transitions

Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions: An Urban Metabolism Approach to Los Angeles Pincetl et al. Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions

Summary: This synthesis article presents an overview of an urban metabolism (UM) approach using mixed methods and multiple sources of data for Los Angeles, California. We examine electric energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, and calculate embedded infrastructure life cycle effects, water use and solid waste streams in an attempt to better understand the urban flows and sinks in the Los Angeles region (city and county). This quantification is being conducted to help policy-makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs, pinpoint best locations for distributed solar generation, and support the development of policies for greater environmental sustainability. It provides a framework to which many more UM flows can be added to create greater understanding of the study area's resource dependencies. Going forward, together with policy analysis, UM can help untangle the complex intertwined resource dependencies that cities must address as they attempt to increase their environmental sustainability

Urban sustainability transitions in a context of multi-level governance: A comparison of four European states

Urban sustainability transitions have attracted increasing academic interest. However, the political-institutional contexts, in which these urban sustainability transitions unfold and by which they are incited, shaped, or inhibited, have received much less attention. This is why we aim at extending previous studies of sustainability transitions by incorporating a multi-level governance perspective. While multi-level governance has been a long-standing theme in political science research, it has remained under-explored in the study of sustainability transitions. This claim is the starting point of our comparative analysis of urban sustainability transitions in Brighton (UK), Dresden (Germany), Genk (Belgium) and Stockholm (Sweden). Our approach “brings the politics back in” by elucidating the dynamics of power concentration and power dispersion generated by different national governance contexts. In our analysis, we explore which opportunities and obstacles these diverse governance contexts provide for urban sustainability transitions

Micro-Dynamics and Institutional Change in Regional Transition Paths to Sustainability

Major ecological and social challenges require fundamental societal changes towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns. An important basis for such "sustainability transitions" are changes in institutional structures (e.g., laws, values and interpretive schemes) that promote sustainable social practices. Currently, little is known about how such institutional changes are triggered and how they evolve. In particular, it is poorly understood how the activities of actors on the micro-level affect the development of institutional structures in the long run and why such processes vary between regions. This thesis analyzes institutional dynamics in sustainability transitions from a regional perspective in order to gain a better understanding of the place-specificity of these processes. Based on the premise that regional sustainability transitions differ from sectoral transition processes, which have hitherto been in the focus of transition research, the dissertation follows three aims: (1) to develop a conceptual framework that captures the particularities of institutional change in regional sustainability transitions; (2) to develop a methodological approach that enables to analyze the complex institutional dynamics underlying regional sustainability transitions; (3) to generate empirical insights into regional sustainability transitions and the actors that drive them on the micro-level. The newly developed conceptual framework of “Regional Transition Paths to Sustainability (RTPS)” builds on insights from Sustainability Transitions literature, Neo-institutional Theory and Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG). Compared to existing approaches that serve to investigate sustainability transitions (in particular the multi-level perspective; MLP), the RTPS approach considers the particularities that shape sustainability transitions at the regional level, such as their gradual and regime-overarching nature, the spatial proximity of actors, regional path dependencies, and the embeddedness of regions in multi-scalar governance networks. The framework focuses on new organizational forms as enablers of both, change and stability, in regional transition paths to sustainability. In doing so, the framework is sensitive to gradual changes in regional institutional structures and their underlying micro-dynamics. Based on this theoretical basis, the methodological approach of a “transition topology” is developed. The topology makes it possible to visualize and reconstruct institutional and organizational changes in their specific time-space context. The approach also makes apparent how institutional change is connected to organizational change at the regional level. In this way, it can be depicted how processes at the micro-level induce gradual changes in the regional path that lead to a more fundamental change at the macro-level over time. The topology allows for systematic comparisons between sustainability transitions in different regions. The conceptual and methodological approaches are applied in three empirical studies: a) an in-depth study of the micro-dynamics of regional sustainability transition in Augsburg (Germany), b) a comparison of the involvement of universities in regional sustainability transitions in Augsburg and Linz (Austria), and c) an investigation into the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in regional sustainability transitions in Upper Austria. These studies are complemented by an analysis (based on a mixed-methods research design) of the motives of researchers for choosing a sustainability-related research topic. | iv All the studies shed light on the processes and dynamics that lead to the diversity of transition pathways across space (e.g., regarding their different pace, their thematic breath), which remained largely “hidden” in previous research on sustainability transitions. They highlight the role of valuedriven actors in regional sustainability transitions, who are often involved in several thematic fields at the same time and who are thus able to realize synergies. In particular, the relevance of new organizational forms for institutional change in regional sustainability transitions becomes apparent. While temporary organizational forms foster the development of sustainable social practices, more permanent organizations are important to stabilize these newly developed practices. The thesis makes an original contribution to the Geography of Sustainability Transitions on a conceptual, methodological and empirical level. It enables a better understanding of institutional dynamics in regional sustainability transitions and therefore generates a basis for promoting such processes in practice

The acceleration of urban sustainability transitions: a comparison of Brighton, Budapest, Dresden, Genk, and Stockholm

City-regions as sites of sustainability transitions have remained under-explored so far. With our comparative analysis of five diverse European city-regions, we offer new insights on contemporary sustainability transitions at the urban level. In a similar vein, the pre-development and the take-off phase of sustainability transitions have been studied in depth while the acceleration phase remains a research gap. We address this research gap by exploring how transitions can move beyond the seeding of alternative experiments and the activation of civil society initiatives. This raises the question of what commonalities and differences can be found between urban sustainability transitions. In our explorative study, we employ a newly developed framework of the acceleration mechanisms of sustainability transitions. We offer new insights on the multi-phase model of sustainability transitions. Our findings illustrate that there are no clear demarcations between the phases of transitions. From the perspective of city-regions, we rather found dynamics of acceleration, deceleration, and stagnation to unfold in parallel. We observed several transitions—transitions towards both sustainability and un-sustainability—to co-evolve. This suggests that the politics of persistence—the inertia and path dependencies of un-sustainability—should be considered in the study of urban sustainability transition

Accountability and sustainability transitions

What constitutes a sustainability transition? We identify sustainability transitions as premised on shifts in accountability relations – assessments of conformance with institutional controls coupled with application of sanctions, incentives, and subsidies – which structure the selection pressures that shape future demographics, technical practices, and social and material trajectories of an economic sector or domain. Contestation and adaptation of accountability mechanisms lend themselves to empirical observation. Beyond evaluating institutional changes that might support a sustainability transition, our analytic framework positions us to identify incoherent, hollow and regressive modes of accountability that constrain sustainability transitions. To operationalize our conceptual scheme, we analyze a purported case of sustainability transitions, solar energy in Portugal during the period 2017–2020. This empirical analysis juxtaposes the promise of movement to a more equitable, low-carbon energy future with institutional and material inertia. We draw on expert interviews, field observation and secondary research to apply accountability analysis to this energy transition case. We find evidence of shifts in relations of accountability that bode well for accelerated growth of solar uptake in Portugal. More broadly, this pilot application of an analytic framework for studying relations of accountability shows significant promise for advancing environmental governance research.acceptedVersio

Sustainability through urban living labs

The Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions project was established to examine, inform and advance the governance of sustainability transitions through urban living labs. The findings could help address many of the economic, social and environmental concerns of the 21st century

Digital innovation's contribution to sustainability transitions

Digital innovation is increasingly mentioned as a potential key contributor to sustainability transitions. However, there has been little theoretical discussion of this topic. In this conceptual paper, the authors draw on literature on both sustainability transition studies and innovation studies to explore critically the contribution of digital innovation in sustainability transitions. They conceptualize transitions as fundamental changes in patterns of production and consumption, such as those relating to energy. Radical innovation leads to changes in the structure of socio-technical systems underlying such patterns, while incremental innovation contributes to maintaining the structure and current patterns. The authors suggest that digital innovations may contribute positively to sustainability transitions through couplings with sustainable innovations. They propose the following typology of such couplings: incremental twin innovations, sustainability supported digital innovations, digitally supported sustainable innovations, and radical twin innovations. Radical twin innovations may possess the greatest potential for sustainability transitions, as they are linked to structural change and thus open new pathways for sustainability transitions, whereas incremental twin innovations merely optimize current unsustainable systems. The typology is illustrated with examples from shipping and from electricity systems, and some of the complexities of twin transitions encountered by researchers and practitioners alike are discussed.publishedVersio

The Geography of Sustainability Transitions: Review, Synthesis and Reflections on an Emergent Research Field.

This review covers the recent literature on the geography of sustainability transitions and takes stock with achieved theoretical and empirical insights. The review synthesises and reflects upon insights of relevance for sustainability transitions following from analyses of the importance of place specificity and the geography of inter-organisational relations. It is found that these contributions focus on the geography of niche development rather than regime dynamics, and that there is an emphasis on understanding the importance of place-specificity at the local level. While there is a wide consensus that place-specificity matters there is still little generalisable knowledge about how place-specificity matters for transitions. Most contributions add spatial sensitivity to frameworks from the transitions literature, but few studies suggest alternative frameworks to study sustainability transitions. To address this, the review suggests promising avenues for future research on the geography of sustainability transitions, drawing on recent theoretical advancements in economic geography

Sustainability transitions and the state

Sustainability transitions is an emerging field of research that has produced both conceptual understandings of the drivers of technological transitions, as well as more prescriptive and policy-engaged analyses of how shifts from unsustainable to sustainable forms of production and consumption can be achieved. Yet, attention towards the role of the state is underdeveloped in the field. The significance of this neglect has become more apparent in particular due to the heightened urgency around the need to tackle climate change and energy security, where there are increasing calls for an enhanced role for the state. This paper sets out to advance understandings of the multiple and conflicting roles that states play in transitions. It first addresses key weaknesses in the way the state has been examined thus far. Second, it highlights theoretical resources and conceptualisations of the state that can help scholars of transitions open up new and more productive avenues for understanding drivers and barriers to sustainable transitions drawing on examples from different sectors, regions and issue areas