Some of the most important and urgent topics requiring economic analysis and policy advice are the problems of climate change and environmental sustainability, and what can be done to alter corporate and individual behaviour to deal with these issues. Neoclassical economists tend to focus on...

The Energy Service Company (ESCo) business model is designed to reward businesses by satisfying consumers’ energy needs at less cost and with fewer carbon emissions via energy demand management and/or sustainable supply measures. In contrast, the revenue of the incumbent Energy Utility Company...

This paper considers the development of a strategic energy body in a local authority in the UK and looks at the perceived need for, and possible roles of, such a body. Historically, energy provision and management has not usually been a strategic priority for UK local authorities. Yet energy...

This paper describes initial analysis of branching points on a set of transition pathways to a UK low carbon electricity future by 2050. As described in other papers in this special issue, we are exploring and analysing a set of core transition pathways, based on alternative governance patterns...

Achieving long-term targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, such as the UK's legally-binding target of reducing its emissions by 80% by 2050, will require a transition in systems for meeting and shaping energy service demands, involving radical substitution to low-carbon supply...

This paper proposes a coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy, based on the coevolution of ecosystems, technologies, institutions, business strategies and user practices, within a multi-level micro–meso–macro perspective. This builds on and...

Recent efforts to promote a transition to a low carbon economy have been influenced by suggestions that a low carbon transition offers challenges and might yield economic benefits comparable to those of the previous industrial revolutions. This paper examines these arguments and the challenges...

This paper presents results from modelling work investigating the effects of social networks on the adoption of energy technologies in the domestic sector. This work concerns ideas on social network interventions which have been successfully applied in other domains but which have seldom been...

Investing in smart grid infrastructure is a key enabler for the transition to low carbon energy systems. Recent work has characterised the costs and benefits of individual “smart” investments. The political economy of the UK electricity system, however, has co-evolved such that there is a...

The purpose of this paper is to review the application of complexity science methods in understanding energy systems and system change. The challenge of moving to sustainable energy systems which provide secure, affordable and low-carbon energy services requires the application of methods which...