TY - JOUR
T1 - Latecomers to the fossil energy transition, frontrunners for change?
T2 - The relevance of the energy 'underdogs' for sustainability transformations
AU - Schaffartzik, Anke
AU - Fischer-Kowalski, Marina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors.
PY - 2018/7/27
Y1 - 2018/7/27
N2 - The global energy system subsumes both extreme wealth (and waste) and extreme poverty. A minority of the global population is consuming the majority of the fossil fuel-based energy and causing global warming. While the mature industrialized economies maintain their high levels of energy consumption, the emerging economies are rapidly expanding their fossil energy systems, emulating traditional patterns of industrialization. We take a global, socio-metabolic perspective on the energy transition phases-take-off, maturation, and completion-of 142 countries between 1971 and 2015. Even within our global fossil energy system, the transition to fossil energy is still ongoing; many countries are in the process of replacing renewable energy with fossil energy. However, due to globally limited supplies and sinks, continuing the fossil energy transition is not an indefinite option. Rather than a "Big Push" for renewable energy within pockets of the fossil energy system, a sustainability transformation is required that would change far more than patterns of energy supply and use. Where this far-reaching change requires pushing back against the fossil energy system, the energy underdogs-the latecomers to the fossil energy transition-just might come out on top.
AB - The global energy system subsumes both extreme wealth (and waste) and extreme poverty. A minority of the global population is consuming the majority of the fossil fuel-based energy and causing global warming. While the mature industrialized economies maintain their high levels of energy consumption, the emerging economies are rapidly expanding their fossil energy systems, emulating traditional patterns of industrialization. We take a global, socio-metabolic perspective on the energy transition phases-take-off, maturation, and completion-of 142 countries between 1971 and 2015. Even within our global fossil energy system, the transition to fossil energy is still ongoing; many countries are in the process of replacing renewable energy with fossil energy. However, due to globally limited supplies and sinks, continuing the fossil energy transition is not an indefinite option. Rather than a "Big Push" for renewable energy within pockets of the fossil energy system, a sustainability transformation is required that would change far more than patterns of energy supply and use. Where this far-reaching change requires pushing back against the fossil energy system, the energy underdogs-the latecomers to the fossil energy transition-just might come out on top.
KW - Energy supply
KW - Fossil energy system
KW - International inequality
KW - Renewable energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051088714&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su10082650
DO - 10.3390/su10082650
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85051088714
VL - 10
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
IS - 8
M1 - 2650
ER -