Empowering the Great Energy Transition ― Policy for a Low-carbon Future

At a time when climate-change deniers hold the reins of power in the United States, what options are available to cities, companies, and consumers around the world who seek a cleaner future? In this book, Scott Victor Valentine, Marilyn A. Brown, and Benjamin K. Sovacool explore the many developments that give reason for optimism. They provide an expert analysis of the achievable steps that citizens, organizational leaders, and policy makers can take to put their commitments to sustainability into practice.

Empowering 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. Valentine, Brown, and Sovacool offer ways to expedite the transition, showing that low-carbon renewable-energy technologies have advanced and solutions for improving energy efficiency are becoming cost-competitive. However, new policies and business models are needed to surmount the hurdles between the current consumption model and cleaner energy. The book emphasizes the need to center energy around climate justice, with special consideration of the effects on public resources and vulnerable groups. Empowering the Great Energy Transition shows that with just a few adjustments, we can set humanity on a course that supports entrepreneurs and communities in mitigating the environmental harm caused by technologies whose time has come and gone.

Scott Victor Valentine is professor and associate dean of sustainability and urban planning at RMIT University. His books include Wind Power Politics and Policies (2014) and, also with Brown and Sovacool, Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: Fifteen Contentious Questions (2016).

Marilyn A. Brown is a Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she directs the Climate and Energy Policy Lab. A former utility regulator, she is a corecipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for the IPCC Report on Mitigation of Climate Change.

Benjamin K. Sovacool is professor of energy policy at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, where he serves as director of the Sussex Energy Group and of the Center on Innovation and Energy Demand. His publications include Global Energy Justice: Problems, Principles, and Practices (2014).