“…The last SDEWES conference, held in Dubrovnik 2015, had in total 541 contributions, with 22 of these, presented in this special issue of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, having an important role to play in mapping the pathways to local, regional and ultimately global decarbonisation by informing key decision makers from industry and government of the findings of cutting-edge research and the state-of-the-art of existing and novel technologies in the field. The guest editors have a diverse background, expertise and knowledge in the field of sustainable energy including biofuels [2], [3], [4], wind [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] solar photovoltaics [10], [11], [12], [13] electric vehicles (EV) [14], [15], [16], [17], [18] greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], electricity markets [24], [25], [26], [27], energy storage [28], [29], [30], [31], [32][33]and climate change measures [34], [35], [36], [37]. As academics and researchers in the field of sustainable energy we should aim to analyse the complex interaction of technology in terms of environmental costs, energy costs, energy security and economic opportunity to fully decarbonise human activity and preserve the planet.…”