Description
Book SynopsisEmpowering the Great Energy Transition demonstrates that a transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources is inevitable—if we can overcome the forces supporting incumbent technologies. It provides an expert analysis of the achievable steps that citizens, organizational leaders, and policy makers can take.
Trade ReviewAnyone offering or believing that bumper sticker solutions exist for reconciling global energy and environmental concerns in the twenty-first century should be humbled after reading this book. Valentine, Brown, and Sovacool offer an erudite, sobering, and compelling analysis of the complicated challenges, tradeoffs, and opportunities involved in transitioning globally to a renewable energy future. Writing in prose accessible to experts and laypersons alike, the authors adroitly integrate a multidisciplinary body of research (pro and con) to make a full-throated case for shifting to a renewable energy future. Readers may or may not agree with their arguments for an energy reset, but they cannot ignore the data, realpolitik, and strategic analysis the authors provide to explain and address the often halting and mostly patchworked progress made so far. -- Robert F. Durant, professor emeritus, American University, and coeditor of
Environmental Governance Reconsidered: Challenges, Choices, and OpportunitiesEnergy is back. After years in the wilderness, the future of energy is once again one of the world’s most important geopolitical, economic, environmental, and technological issues. Scott Valentine and colleagues thoughtfully survey the issues—and argue that energy will stay firmly on the agenda, not least because of the imperative of cutting carbon emissions that harm the climate. They open windows into the academic literatures, and deftly draw out the practical implications for individuals, organizations, and government policy makers who want to have an impact. -- David Victor, professor and codirector, Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, University of California at San Diego
Valentine, Brown, and Sovacool have once again lent their wealth of knowledge and experience to the rest of us. At this critical time they have focused their attention on the most important topic of the day.
Empowering the Great Energy Transition underscores the urgency of kicking our addiction to carbon-based fuels. But their contribution does not stop there. It does not just tell us
why we should do it, but
how we can do it. For those who have already caught a whiff of the climate-change catastrophe looming just over the horizon, finally here is a book that lays out with compelling detail, breadth, and logic the necessary energy policies to achieve a low-carbon future that can save our children, our grandchildren, and ourselves. Among the many books on energy transition, this eclipses them all. -- Martin J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University
[A] useful survey of the nexus between global energy use and climate change. * Foreign Affairs *
A clear-eyed review of the challenges posed by climate change and convey the urgency of transitioning to more equitable, cost-effective, and sustainable energy infrastructure. * Energy *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
1. The Great Energy Transition
2. Sneak Preview of the Challenges to the Energy Transition
3. The Uncertainties of Climate Change
4. Managing Uncertainties While Promoting Technological Evolution
5. Fostering and Financing the Energy Infrastructure Transition
6. Policies for Driving Innovation and Expediting the Transition
7. Consumers as Agents of Change
8. Minimizing Governance Barriers and Creating Polycentric Networks
9. Faster, Further, Farther: Empowering the Great Energy Transition
Notes
Index
