Overcoming barriers to innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies: some features of a sustainable innovation policy regime

Foxon, Timothy J.; Pearson, Peter J. G.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2007.10.011

Cited by 319 publications

(202 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…new behaviour is not convenient or affordable). Shove (2010) (Foxon & Pearson 2008). Parthan et al (2010) state that a large number of barriers -within the realms of policy, regulation, financing, and business frameworks -prevent the accelerated development of low-carbon energy technology markets, and that cities provide opportunities to achieve low-carbon transition through a focused, area-based approach; however, low-carbon energy planning needs to be integrated into urban planning for policy areas such as transportation, buildings, water supply, electricity and heat.…”

Section: Barriers To Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and cities: problem structuring methods and critical perspectives on low-carbon districts

Freeman¹,

Yearworth²

2017

Energy Research & Social Science

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Cities around the world have set climate change mitigation targets, yet actions to implement these targets have so far proved inadequate. Better methodology is needed to support this impetus for action.Problem structuring methods (PSMs) enable improvements to be made in wicked problem situations; they appear to have potential to improve climate change mitigation actions but they are difficult to carry out in highly pluralist problem contexts. A case study (STEEP) that applied a PSM to support lowcarbon urban energy master planning in three cities is presented. The STEEP methodology was effective in reducing the wickedness of the problem but issues of a lack of clarity on problem ownership and lack of interessement were seen. A reflective boundary critique study found that there was a mismatch between power and interest amongst key stakeholders towards the low-carbon vision. Three key issues identified in the case study were discussed through the lens of critical systems thinking: (i) the need for new competencies, (ii) dealing with wickedness, and (iii) behavioural complexity and discordant reference systems. The paper suggests how these issues might be improved through the application of non-PSM theories which can support the use of PSMs in improving city-level climate change mitigation.Key Words: Problem structuring methods; problematisation; Boundary Critique; climate change mitigation; critical systems thinking IntroductionRecent decades have seen slow and insufficient progress on climate change mitigation -the reduction of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to below a "safe" level, as recommended by climate science (Edenhofer et al. 2014). Climate change mitigation has been described as a "wicked" problem (Rittel 2There is much potential for cities to play an active role in climate change mitigation. A 40% reduction in carbon emissions from UK cities could be possible by 2020 just from investing in cost-effective lowcarbon technologies (Sullivan et al. 2013). City governments often control some of the key factors related to carbon emissions such as land use planning, building regulations, public transport, and waste management (Kousky & Schneider 2003). Across the world, cities are joining together to support each other in the goal of transitioning to a low-carbon future (for example, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (www.c40.org) and Local Governments for Sustainability (www.iclei.org)). In reality, however, low-carbon cities are difficult to achieve. A study of eight new-build eco-cities found that the idea of building smart, sustainable cities is still relatively new and unproven, with projects being To guide the reader through the rest of this paper, a brief description of the main sections follows:• Section 2, Background -Perspectives on Urban Climate Change Mitigation: A review of the literature on the nature of the problem of climate change mitigation at the city level, including barriers to mitigation, ideological perspectives from social science, and governance mechanisms that ha...

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Section: Barriers To Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and cities: problem structuring methods and critical perspectives on low-carbon districts

Freeman¹,

Yearworth²

2017

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…One major obstacle is that competing and established unsustainable technologies are usually supported by the normative and regulatory environment within which they have evolved (Geels, Hekkert, and Jacobsson 2008). In other words, the success of the introduction of new technologies is not only determined by the technology itself, but also by the social system that develops and implements the new technology (Foxon and Pearson 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining the technological innovation systems framework with the entrepreneurs’ perspective on innovation

Planko

Cramer

Hekkert

et al. 2016

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

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For their technological sustainability innovations to become successful, entrepreneurs can strategically shape the technological field in which they are involved. The technological innovation systems (TISs) literature has generated valuable insights into the processes which need to be stimulated for the successful development and implementation of innovative sustainability technologies. To explore the applicability of the TIS framework from the perspective of entrepreneurs, we conducted a case study in the Dutch smart grids sector. We found that the TIS framework generally matches the perspectives of entrepreneurs. For its use by entrepreneurs, we suggest a slight adaptation of this framework. The process 'Market formation' needs to be divided into processes that are driven by the government and processes that are driven by entrepreneurs. There should be a greater emphasis on collaborative marketing, on changing user behaviour and preferences and on the development of fair and feasible business models. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…It was concluded that marketing programs and subsidies must remain in place for a sufficiently long period to allow for diffusion to become self-sustaining. Foxon and Pearson (2008) examined the barriers to the general diffusion of cleaner technologies and sustainable innovation and identified failures in infrastructure provision, transition failures, lock-in failures and institutional failures as the primary barriers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How should barriers to alternative fuels and vehicles be classified and potential policies to promote innovative technologies be evaluated?

Browne¹,

O’Mahony

Caulfield

2012

Journal of Cleaner Production

157

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There appears to be increasing policy emphasis globally on developing innovative technologies and promoting incentives to support the take-up of alternative fuels and vehicles (AFVs) among consumers. The primary reason for this is that they potentially offer a pathway to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution in the transport sector, without the need for contentious transport demand management measures such as road pricing or restrictive land use planning. However, despite the fact that AFVs are often seen as a panacea by policy-makers, there are a number of barriers to their widespread market penetration and diffusion. The objective of this paper is to present a framework, which can be modified and used by policy-makers to identify and qualitatively evaluate these barriers as well as potential policies that might be implemented to address these barriers. The paper concludes by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of applying this framework . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 1 How Should Barriers to Alternative Fuels and Vehicles be Classified and Potential Policies to Promote Innovative Technologies be Evaluated?Abstract There appears to be increasing policy emphasis globally on developing innovative technologies and promoting incentives to support the take-up of alternative fuels and vehicles (AFVs) among consumers. The primary reason for this is that they potentially offer a pathway to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution in the transport sector, without the need for contentious transport demand management measures such as road pricing or restrictive land use planning. However, despite the fact that AFVs are often seen as a panacea by policy-makers, there are a number of barriers to their widespread market penetration and diffusion. The objective of this paper is to present a framework, which can be modified and used by policy-makers to identify and qualitatively evaluate these barriers as well as potential policies that might be implemented to address these barriers. The paper concludes by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of applying this framework.

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Overcoming barriers to innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies: some features of a sustainable innovation policy regime

Cited by 319 publications

References 24 publications

Climate change and cities: problem structuring methods and critical perspectives on low-carbon districts

Climate change and cities: problem structuring methods and critical perspectives on low-carbon districts

Combining the technological innovation systems framework with the entrepreneurs’ perspective on innovation

How should barriers to alternative fuels and vehicles be classified and potential policies to promote innovative technologies be evaluated?

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