Sustanability Transitions

What are sustainability transitions?

• Sustainability transitions involve conflicts (innovation and decline, winners and losers)

• Transitions are processes with long time-spans

• The interplay of different technologies

• Transitions include technological, political, and organizational dimensions

Example:

• Energy transition: Replacement of fossil fuels and nuclear energy by renewable energy

• Objectives: Addressing cliamte change as well as reducing air pollution and facilitating access to electricity

Pre-development phase:

• Stable situation, no changes

• Sustainability problems emerge without being addressed

Take- off phase:

• Renewable energy transitions starts in 1990

• Early diffusion of biomass, wind, and solar

• Established technologies are still stable

Acceleration phase:

• New technologies pick up and the use of established technologies decline

• Transition comes with new challenges such as the integration of various energy sources

• New technologies such as battery storage or new transmission lines are required

Researchers highlight the importance of the systems perspective for transitions

They analyze the transitions in a socio-technological system due to two reasons:

• Interdependency: None of the dimensions can develop autonomously, they are all interconnected. Thus, they have to be analyzed in a systematic way instead of just looking at disaggregated components

• Difficulty: The systems perspective explains the difficulty to accomplish transitions. Established elements reinforce the already existing system.