Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions最新文献

{"title":"Synergies and tensions between decarbonisation, security and strategic autonomy in EU energy policy","authors":"Paula Kivimaa,&nbsp;Hanna Entsalo","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasing concerns over European security and competitiveness during the 2020s have changed the policy landscape in the EU. Pertaining to energy, this has meant that the decarbonisation objectives put in place by the EU Green Deal are contrasted with objectives for improved energy security and open strategic autonomy (OSA), with potentially hindering implications on the advancement of sustainability transitions. This article explores policy synergies and tensions between decarbonisation, security and strategic autonomy in EU-level energy policy. It analyses 20 in-depth expert interviews to uncover synergies and tensions on the levels of policy objectives, instruments, processes and outcomes – and the potential impact of these on sustainability transitions. A framework combining sustainability transitions’ policy intervention points with policy coherence and elements of OSA is applied to guide the analysis. We conclude that clear synergies exist at the policy objective and instrument levels between sustainability transition and OSA rationales. Yet our findings also highlight potential tensions in policy processes and outcomes which may mean reduced political attention on advancing the unfolding energy transition. Given the strong revival of energy industrial policy in the EU, it is imperative that the objectives of advancing sustainability transitions and security are integrated into and coordinated with it.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article 101109"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146173627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Niche orchestration in fragmented ecologies of intermediation: evidence from agroecological transitions in Senegal","authors":"R. Belmin ,&nbsp;B. Turnheim ,&nbsp;B. Gaillard ,&nbsp;S. Boillat ,&nbsp;P. Bottazzi ,&nbsp;A. Mbodj ,&nbsp;A Loconto","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101095","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101095","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agroecological transitions in the Global South often unfold within complex ecologies of intermediation, shaped by atomised project logics, donor dependence and transnational interventions. In such contexts, the coexistence of multiple intermediaries - NGOs, research bodies, farmer organisations, etc. - can hinder rather than foster niche development. This article analyses how orchestration can emerge as a governance mechanism that provides cooperation and symbiosis within such fragmented ecologies of intermediation. Drawing on a longitudinal study of the Senegalese agroecological niche (1980–2025), we trace how a locally rooted NGO mobilised and steered an advocacy coalition - DyTAES (French acronym for ‘Dynamique pour une transition agroécologique au Sénégal’) - to connect grassroot initiatives with territorial coalitions, national policy arenas and transnational agendas. We therefore conceptualise <em>niche orchestration</em> as a specific governance mechanism whereby a central and resourceful actor coordinates an ecologies of intermediation to generate momentum for the niche. Orchestration is not a single act of management, but an iterative, multi-scalar process that unfolds over time through the strategic integration of multiple systemic intermediation functions. Such centralization and functional bundling are uncommon, as intermediation efforts in broader ecologies are usually spread across multiple actors. The Senegalese experience demonstrates both the potential and the risks of niche orchestration, highlighting how it can accelerate transitions while raising concerns of dependency and co-optation. Future research may test and refine this perspective using other study cases, including in Global North contexts and non-agricultural context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article 101095"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146173628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Kicking the shin and extending a hand’: Which strategies do civil society actors use to affect transitions to sustainable finance?","authors":"Florian Kern ,&nbsp;Janina Urban ,&nbsp;Sophie Progscha ,&nbsp;Helen Sharp ,&nbsp;Simon Schairer ,&nbsp;Joscha Wullweber","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101098","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101098","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The role of finance has been under-researched in the literature on sustainability transitions. Much of the literature merely acknowledges the need for substantial investments in technologies or infrastructures. More recently, there has been increasing interest in the role of finance in transitions and how transitions to a more sustainable finance regime could take place. This article follows a call for research on specific actor groups within finance transitions, focusing on civil society organisations. As an exploratory study, it develops and tests an analytical framework for scrutinising strategies through which civil society is trying to affect finance transitions. Based on a mapping exercise, documentary analysis and 46 stakeholder interviews, we conclude that civil society actors mainly use cooperative approaches and have succeeded in bringing sustainable finance on the EU and German policy agendas, but have had limited impact so far in terms of reorienting legislation and finance actor long-term practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article 101098"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145977790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Implementing sustainability transitions at the city level: the doughnut in Amsterdam","authors":"Janthe Albers ,&nbsp;Rhiannon Pugh ,&nbsp;Taylor Brydges","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Like many cities worldwide, Amsterdam has ambitious plans around sustainability transitions. The city has oriented towards an alternative economic development model called “Doughnut Economics” and has attempted to implement ideas from the work of economist Kate Raworth on the ground through a “Doughnut Strategy” and the Amsterdam Doughnut Coalition. This paper explores the evolution of Amsterdam’s doughnut efforts through a qualitative case study conducted from 2022–2023. Based on insights from this unique case, it explores to what extent the doughnut model can help cities undertake sustainability transitions, and which elements of transitions are indeed present (or lacking) in the Amsterdam doughnut approach to date. Whilst there were several positive lessons emerging from our case study involving those working on the ground to implement the Doughnut Strategy, our research found particular transition elements difficult to implement, especially those requiring culture change and system ruptures. Targeted solutions to these challenges can unlock the approach’s full potential to foster holistic city-level transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article 101099"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Varieties of disagreement in transformative policy missions: A Q study on the decarbonization of Swedish industry","authors":"Johnn Andersson ,&nbsp;Hans Hellsmark ,&nbsp;Elizaveta Johansson","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101069","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101069","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Governments increasingly launch transformative policy missions to address complex societal challenges such as climate change. While the literature on mission-oriented innovation policy highlights the role of stakeholder contestation and emphasizes the need to promote alignment, it often overlooks the nature of underlying disagreements. This paper distinguishes between factual and normative disagreement across problems, solutions, and interventions, and applies Q methodology to identify and analyze four distinct stakeholder narratives in the mission to decarbonize Swedish industry. The narratives reveal different varieties of disagreement, ranging from factual concerns about technological feasibility and policy effectiveness to normative critiques of directionality and legitimacy. Our findings demonstrate that missions involve not only alignment, but also <em>disjointment</em> – persistent divergences of opinion rooted in fundamentally conflicting values and beliefs. Recognizing disjointment underscores the need for mission-oriented policymaking to balance efforts to foster alignment with strategies that address enduring conflict through mediation, recognition, redistribution, and compensation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 101069"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145473242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modelling energy justice: Reconceptualizing the modelling process to include procedural and recognition justice","authors":"Aarthi Sundaram ,&nbsp;Yilin Huang ,&nbsp;Igor Nikolic ,&nbsp;Eefje Cuppen","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101070","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101070","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interest in linking energy models with energy justice is growing, with a rising number of studies explicitly addressing the three tenets of justice – distributive, procedural, and recognition – and reviews mapping this field. Yet procedural and recognition justice have been treated in limited ways, leaving it unclear how models can meaningfully engage with them. This paper addresses this gap through a structured review of 63 peer-reviewed studies that develop or use models to support local and regional energy transition decisions while incorporating justice considerations. We find that procedural justice is primarily operationalized as stakeholder participation, with less efforts made to explicitly address other principles such as transparency, inclusivity, accountability and to include non-participatory ways of including stakeholder input. Recognition justice is either omitted or conflated with procedural principles, whereas energy justice literature defines it in systemic terms that extend beyond the mere acknowledgement of stakeholder groups. We argue that early-stage decisions such as funding, research design, and stakeholder selection significantly influence whose values are represented in models, whose knowledge is excluded, and which outcomes are prioritized. These influences, despite their justice implications, are rarely acknowledged, with existing efforts biased toward implementations of justice within model logic. We propose expanding the scope of modelling to include these early-stage influences and outline four recommendations for modellers: broaden justice conceptualizations beyond model logic; evaluate early-stage justice implications; adopt reflexive practices; and leverage multi-modelling approaches to capture the multi-dimensionality of energy justice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 101070"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145441660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decolonising innovation in sustainability transitions for pluriversal justice and wellbeing","authors":"Saurabh Arora ,&nbsp;Bipashyee Ghosh ,&nbsp;Andy Stirling","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101064","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101064","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainability scholars address social-ecological injustices associated with innovation processes, through concepts such as ‘just transitions’ and ‘energy justice’. However, the making of today’s innovations by <em>deep and pervasive formations of power and privilege – colonial modernities</em> – is currently neglected in sustainability transition studies. We conceptualise nine epistemological and ontological foundations of distinctively colonial-modern innovation processes. These foundations include: fixing categorical divides on flowing relations; stratifying rigidly separated orders; promoting appropriation of privileges; objectifying and reifying realities; monopolising quantifications; standardising practices; singularising ontology, by approaching the pluriverse (of many different and connected ways of knowing, being and doing in disparate worlds) as just one world; and dominating other worlds by colonial-modern worldmaking.</div><div>Taken together, these interwoven foundations point to the following actions to help decolonise modern innovation processes: recognising and <em>challenging colonial formations</em> of concentrated power and privilege as they are built into modern knowing; <em>extending egalitarian relations</em> towards intersectionally marginalised contributors in knowledge production; <em>grasping multifarious encompassment</em> by wider material and living ecologies of beings notionally separated as ‘human’ or ‘nonhuman’; <em>embracing inherent uncertainties</em> in all that can be known or made, to imbue knowing and making with humility and care; <em>admitting open pluralities</em> of qualities, which include approaching dimensions of categories as fluid; and <em>supporting pluriversal reparations</em> spanning many ways of knowing, in struggles to dismantle coloniality everywhere. Decolonising innovation processes in these ways, we propose, can contribute to deeper decolonial transformations of modernities in solidarity with colonially subordinated peoples’ <em>struggles for pluriversal wellbeing and justice</em>. Without realising such justice for the flourishing of many worlds, sustainability may remain little more than a modern illusion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 101064"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145567507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Configurations of leverage points for the deliberate acceleration of ideal-type transition pathways in the EU food system","authors":"Tom Kiel ,&nbsp;Jeroen J.L. Candel ,&nbsp;Erik Mathijs ,&nbsp;Robbert Biesbroek","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The complexity of the EU food system poses a significant challenge to the transition towards sustainable and healthy food consumption, as interdependent factors reproduce stable social structures that resist change. The concept of leverage points (LPs) helps identify strategic intervention points to stimulate system change. However, focusing on individual LPs often entails trade-offs between transformative feasibility and depth. Moreover, existing LP approaches tend to overlook the long-term co-evolution of interrelated social structures. To address this gap, we connect LP categories to mechanisms that accelerate progress along four transition pathways that predict potential future dynamics. We apply this synthesized framework to expert focus group data, demonstrating how specific LP configurations can deliberately accelerate system transitions. Taking innovations as entry points, we identify LP configurations that support the upscaling and spreading of these innovations throughout the system. Our findings suggest that blending deep and shallow LPs may help to overcome system inertia. Nonetheless, multiple, co-existing transition pathways across diverse subsystems may be required to fully confront the scale and urgency of sustainability and health challenges in the EU food system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 101041"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144997736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unpacking lock-ins in transition pathways: Lessons from the Dutch circular plastic packaging mission","authors":"S.A.M.J.V. Bours ,&nbsp;I. Wanzenböck ,&nbsp;V.S.C. Tunn ,&nbsp;M.P. Hekkert","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101075","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101075","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Societal mission-oriented policies are shaped by the socio-technical systems in which they are embedded, yet their openness to multiple transition pathways, particularly when a dominant one exists, is underexplored. This study addresses this gap through a qualitative case study of the circular plastic packaging mission in the Netherlands. We analyse the interaction between the mission and socio-technical system dynamics across three circular transition pathways: recycling (the locked-in pathway), reuse and refuse (emerging pathways in the circular transition). Our findings identify three types of lock-ins (infrastructure and technology, institutional, and behavioural) that strongly favour recycling as a dominant pathway in the circular transition, persisting also after the mission's implementation. We contribute to the transitions literature by showing that mission policies can gradually reshape institutions and reduce lock-in. However, it also underscores the necessity of active mission governance to promote and activate less dominant pathways that align with societal goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article 101075"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How public policy and public salience interact with the energy transition: The case of commercial-scale battery storage adoption","authors":"Steffen Simon Bettin ,&nbsp;Michael Thomas Dorsch","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101056","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article analyzes potential policy drivers affecting the adoption of commercial-scale battery storage (CSBS) technologies across high-income countries within the context of the energy transition from 1992-2018 with panel econometric methods. We first estimate a standard technology diffusion model and then investigate various factors that could “shift” the diffusion curves. The first main set of results suggests a positive relationship between public salience and CSBS adoption. The second set of results investigates how latent energy market reactions may influence CSBS adoption. Those results show, surprisingly, no relation or a weak negative relation between the structure of the energy mix and CSBS adoption. The third set of results investigates the effect of public policies: targeted vis-à-vis broad innovation policies. Here, the results indicate a relationship between higher RD&amp;D expenditures for electricity storage and greater rates of CSBS adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 101056"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145221242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}