Households are responsible for 70% of CO2 emissions (directly and indirectly). While households as agents of change increasingly become a crucial element in energy transitions, bottom-up mechanisms facilitating behavioral change are not fully understood. A scientific understanding of individual energy use, requires eliciting factors that trigger or inhibit changes in energy behavior. This paper explores individual energy consumption practices and behavioral aspects that affect them. We quantitatively study the determinants of three energy actions: (1) investments in house insulation, solar panels and/or energy-efficient appliances, (2) conservation of energy by changing energy-use habits like switching off unused devices or adjusting house temperature, and (3) switching to green(er) electricity sources. To address this goal, we conduct a comprehensive survey among households (N = 1790) in two EU regions: Overijssel, the Netherlands and Navarre, Spain. We use probit regression to estimate how behavioral factors, households’ socioeconomic characteristics and structural attributes of dwellings influence energy related actions. Our analysis demonstrates that awareness and personal and social norms are as important as monetary factors. Moreover, education and structural dwelling factors significantly affect households’ actions. These results have implications for governmental policies aimed at reducing residential CO2 footprints and facilitating demand-side solutions in a transition to low-carbon economy.

In the last decade, instigated by the Paris agreement and United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP22 and COP23), the efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels are expanding. The required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions imply a massive decarbonization worldwide with much involvement of regions, cities, businesses, and individuals in addition to the commitments at the national levels. Improving end-use efficiency is emphasized in previous IPCC reports (IPCC 2014). Serving as the primary ‘agents of change’ in the transformative process towards green economies, households have a key role in global emission reduction. Individual actions, especially when amplified through social dynamics, shape green energy demand and affect investments in new energy technologies that collectively can curb regional and national emissions. However, most energy-economics models—usually based on equilibrium and optimization assumptions—have a very limited representation of household heterogeneity and treat households as purely rational economic actors. This paper illustrates how computational social science models can complement traditional models by addressing this limitation. We demonstrate the usefulness of behaviorally rich agent-based computational models by simulating various behavioral and climate scenarios for residential electricity demand and compare them with the business as usual (SSP2) scenario. Our results show that residential energy demand is strongly linked to personal and social norms. Empirical evidence from surveys reveals that social norms have an essential role in shaping personal norms. When assessing the cumulative impacts of these behavioral processes, we quantify individual and combined effects of social dynamics and of carbon pricing on individual energy efficiency and on the aggregated regional energy demand and emissions. The intensity of social interactions and learning plays an equally important role for the uptake of green technologies as economic considerations, and therefore in addition to carbon-price policies (top-down approach), implementing policies on education, social and cultural practices can significantly reduce residential carbon emissions.

This paper explores the governance of sectoral innovation and niche formation of green buildings and other low energy buildings (like NZEBs). Two analytical frameworks are used and synthesized: the Sectoral Systems Innovation Assessment framework (SSIAf) and the Governance Assessment Tool (GAT). The key components of the former are: shaping of expectations, actor network formation, institutions, learning process, and stimulating market demand. The SSIAf components are then assessed against the four quality criterions of the GAT framework, i.e. extent, coherence, flexibility, and intensity. The research design presented in this paper applies the analytical framework developed to case studies of two cities: Singapore and Delhi. Data collection involved participant observation and expert interviews. The results of the study reveal that the overall governance conditions in Singapore are fairly strong and highly supported by the government, unlike Delhi where governance quality was found to lack coherence and intensity, and can be considered only moderately supportive to green building innovations. The results also reveal the role of government actors in steering the energy transformation process in building sector. The analytical framework developed in this paper can be further elaborated, also as a potential policy tool to support cities in managing energy system innovations like energy infrastructures, smart grids or community energy storage in diverse and complex urban settings.

There is abundant solar potential in the Middle East North Africa region. Yet access to sustainable energy is still a fundamental challenge in many countries of this region. In this paper we seek to understand the success and failure of the development and the diffusion of solar energy technologies by analysing using a Strategic Niche Management framework to compare the niche development of solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaics in Lebanon. This paper has two main questions: (1) How have the solar thermal niche and the solar photovoltaic niche developed in Lebanon, and how do they compare? (2) In which ways does the Strategic Niche Management framework help us to understand the development of solar energy niches in a developing country context? To answer these questions, a cross case analysis of solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems was conducted. Due to the absence of research using Strategic Niche Management in Middle Eastern developing countries, this study uses an illustrative case from a country in this region to contribute new insights. Moreover, unlike the Strategic Niche Management research that only focuses on single case studies, this paper presents the results of a comparative study of two niches. The main Strategic Niche Management propositions were grouped and compared per item (i.e. on voicing and shaping expectations, social networks, and learning). The results show that the solar thermal niche affected the solar photovoltaic niche to a large extent. This was especially in relation to the learning and coordination processes. This has gradually contributed to establishing a clear vision. However, both niches lacked a niche manager who was able to coordinate, manage and maintain the dynamics of the niche processes. It also lacked horizontal collaboration between key actors involved (i.e. ministries). International donors were found to play a crucial role in initiating and shaping the market with certain constraints of prioritization in the region. The paper ends with conclusions and ideas for future research on solar energy niche development in the context of developing countries.

Recent scholarly attention shows that grassroots civil society low-carbon energy initiatives increasingly become part of the subnational climate change governance landscape. Despite their potency in view of consumer-owned distributed generation and enhanced citizen influence in the organization of the energy infrastructure, local low-carbon energy initiatives (LLCEIs) struggle to become viable alternatives to the centralized, private oriented energy system. To further LLCEI development, support needs to build their capacities; alleviate institutional hurdles and barriers stemming from the fossil fuel-based energy regime; and open up the system for the uptake, acceptance or breakthrough of LLCEIs. Evidence suggests that so-called "intermediaries" form a part of the solution in addressing these issues. Despite previous attempts at analyzing intermediary roles and activities vis-à-vis the development of community energy, the reality of the various roles and strategies intermediaries can employ and the support LLCEIs require to further develop have not yet been synthesized in a comprehensive analytical framework. This article aims to fill this gap by developing such a framework. We reflect on the analytical framework by evaluating the intermediary support structure in a specific case: the Province of Fryslân. From the analysis, we conclude that the Frisian case provided modest support to the claim that intermediary support is effective in addressing the needs of LLCEIs as the strategies and roles observed represent a complete and coherent support structure.

Climate change and environmental problems are of major concern to governments, organisations, and consumers. This stresses the need for a transition towards clean renewable energy systems. To enable the diffusion of cleaner energy technology it is not enough to just have supportive policies in place. The challenge is to ensure that consumers adopt them. This article integrates insights from different research traditions into a research model to analyse consumers’ adoption decision-making behaviour. The innovation-diffusion model by Rogers was used and hypotheses from environmental psychological models were later added. A survey was conducted among householders to assess the adoption of solar heating systems in the Metn neighbourhood in Lebanon (N = 200). The results revealed that adopters and non-adopters differ significantly according to socio-demographic factors, such as income and household size.
The study confirmed the significance of typical variables of the diffusion of innovation model, such as relative advantage, observability, independent judgment-making, and novelty-seeking; even when testing integrative analytical models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, by integrating hypotheses from environmental psychology models to the diffusion of innovation model, a reasonable fit was achieved which is higher than the value of each model tested separately. The results can be of use to policy makers. The article ends with suggestions for future research.

In light of climate change and global commitments, a great amount of programs and policies have been implemented by governments targeting the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. Successful diffusion relies on the understanding, persuasion and acceptance by consumers and other stakeholders. This article investigates the views, roles and influence of stakeholders on the adoption of solar energy technology in Lebanon. The main research questions are: What are the stakeholders' views, roles and influence on the diffusion process of solar energy technologies? And are specific socio-cultural factors therein that influenced adoption? The influence of different stakeholders (end users, public representatives, banking sector, suppliers, consultants and NGOs) was assessed via qualitative data analysis, in particular semi-structured interviews. Our research perspective combines grounded and critical theoretical approaches with a case study research design allowing for a semi-inductive process to elaborate and complement new insights to the current body of literature on adoption of clean technology innovation, with a particular focus on the socio-cultural dimension. The results show that contextual factors, specifically related to the social, cultural, geographic and market dimensions, played a crucial role in shaping market development, especially in relation to the uptake of solar energy technology by different consumer groups. Based on the results of this study we argue that more scholarly attention should be awarded to the influence of the socio-cultural dimension and stakeholders' perspectives on adoption of renewable energy technology.

Changing residential energy demand can play an essential role in transitioning to a green economy. Environmental psychology suggests that behavioral changes regarding energy use are affected by knowledge, awareness, motivation and social learning. Data on various behavioral drivers of change can explain energy use at the individual level, but it provides little information about implications for macro energy demand on regional or national levels. We address this challenge by presenting a theoretically-based and empirically-driven agent-based model to track aggregated impacts of behavioral changes among heterogeneous households. We focus on the representation of the multi-step changes in individual energy use behavior and on a quantitative assessment of their aggregated impacts on the regional level. We understand the behavioral complexity of household energy use as a dynamic process unfolding in stages, and explore the barriers for utilizing the full potential of a region for emissions reduction. We suggest a policy mix that facilitates mutual learning among consumers.

The net zero-energy building (NZEB) concept has recently gained prominence worldwide. Large scale adoption and implementation of NZEBs would potentially contribute greatly to greening of the building sector. However, it is still at a nascent stage of niche formation. This paper aims to assess the governance context for adoption and uptake of NZEBs through niche formation in India by addressing the research question: What is the state of governance in New Delhi regarding NZEB niche development? A case study research design is used to answer this question. The Governance Assessment Tool (GAT) and Strategic Niche Management (SNM) are used to analyze the New Delhi case. Data collection involved in-depth interviews with fourteen key stakeholders. Data were analyzed using the qualitative data analysis software (ATLAS.ti). The results reveal that the governance context is only marginally supportive towards NZEB niche formation due to qualities of moderate extent, flexibility and intensity. Actor network formation was identified as an important driver which influences other elements of governance, as well as factors stimulating strategic niche management.

Climate policy has a strong influence on policy processes at national levels in Indonesia, while other policies with a focus on air quality improvement are being implemented at local levels. Indonesia as a developing country has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 29 percent by the year 2030. This calls into question the extent to which cities and local governments can cope with the challenges of climate change mitigation. The purpose of the research is to find out the extent to which local air pollution reduction policies can contribute to the climate change mitigation program. The research design involved an empirical case study on governance and policy
relevant to climate change efforts to lower GHG in Bandung City, Indonesia. The study evaluated the air quality improvement and the climate change mitigation programs using the actor-based framework of the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT). The governance and stakeholder characteristic of climate change mitigation were also analysed using the structural context part of the CIT framework. The result shows that air quality improvement policy is implemented separately from climate policy; the latter operates at the national level and the former at the local level. By looking at the actor interaction analysis, the study concludes that a more holistic environmental policy approach would be more efficient at reducing local air pollution and contributing to the mitigation of climate change.