Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: A Longitudinal Quantitative-Qualitative Systems Approach to the Study of Transitions toward a Low Carbon Society

Significance Statement

To address the challenges of climate change, the dissemination of carbon neutral technologies will be required with the accompanying formation of new socio-technical systems. It is only through association with human agency, social structures and organization that technology attains its functionality. A socio-technical system is defined as a cluster of elements that includes technology, regulation, user practices and markets, cultural meaning, infrastructure, maintenance networks, and supply networks. It is for this reason that a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationship between technological systems and social systems is imperative if the intended technological change is to be a part of the solution to the problem of climate change. The process of technical change must be considered in its institutional and social context. Simon Robertson from University of New South Wales in Australia proposed a systems approach for an integrated quantitative and qualitative analysis of low carbon transition pathways. The paper is now published in peer-reviewed, Journal of Cleaner Production.

The socio-technical approach, according to the author, is well-equipped to examine the co-evolution of the social and technical aspects of the system under consideration with regard to ‘who’ and ‘how’ parameters of the transition. Notwithstanding the requirement for the contextualisation of technology, socio-technical studies concerned with low carbon pathways have a propensity to describe, qualitatively, transitions that are essentially concerned with quantitative objectives, such as emissions reduction target fulfillment. Due to this inability to consider quantitative elements within the qualitative analysis, the author argues that the established socio-technical approach is found to be deficient to the extent that only general assertions can be made as to the mitigation potential of the proposed green technologies. Such a deficiency results in the ‘what’ parameter remaining generic rather than specific. He postulates that this poses a significant limitation to the resolution quality of low carbon transition policy recommendations given the critical importance for quantity certainty when developing greenhouse gas mitigation policies.

In order to address this deficiency, the author expounds an interdisciplinary approach that integrated the quantitative tool of Life Cycle Assessment and the qualitative Socio-technical Scenario tool. The integrated quantitative-qualitative methodology, with its what-who-how disposition, affords a higher degree of resolution to the proposed transition policy recommendations. Ultimately, the integrated methodology provides greater quantity certainty in respect to the development of appropriate low carbon transition pathways and the suite of policy instruments to be employed. In addition to the suite of transition policy recommendations, the integrated methodology provides an order of implementation. This capacity of the integrated methodology improves the probability of sustaining the inertia of the transition via a process of sequencing the transition policies in order to concert the effects of each policy measure. This innovative, integrated quantitative-qualitative methodology is highly applicable to both government and industry concerned with strategic transition management.

About The Author

Simon Robertson’s principal research focus is the development of original, innovative, interdisciplinary approaches for the study of sustainability transition pathways. Awarded a Bachelor of Technology, a Master of Environmental Management (recipient of the Orica-Harding University Prize, University of New South Wales), and a Doctorate in Environmental Policy and Management, he applied his significant interdisciplinary knowledge to successfully develop an integrated quantitative and qualitative tool for the analysis of sustainability transition pathways. Simon’s interdisciplinary tool was a world first to cross-pollinate the distinct disciplinary inquiries of environmental engineering (i.e., Life Cycle Assessment) and sustainability transition theory (i.e., Multi-Level Perspective). In addition to the development of interdisciplinary approaches for the study of sustainability transitions, his research also focuses on the efficacy of ‘green’ technologies through process-based life cycle assessment.

Simon’s research interests span all aspects of sustainability across multiple disciplines. With diverse expertise in environmental engineering, the sociology of science and technology, and in political ecology, his research continues to engage with multi-faceted, complex issues from transitioning towards low-carbon societies to the socio-environmental nexus of natural
resource management.

Journal Reference

Simon Robertson, A Longitudinal Quantitative Qualitative Systems Approach to the Study of Transitions toward a Low Carbon Society, Journal of Cleaner Production 128 (2016) 221-233.

Faculty of Science/Faculty of Arts and Social Science, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales 2052, Australia.

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