Positive Tipping Points Towards Sustainability
Understanding the Conditions and Strategies for Fast Decarbonization in Regions
- Open Access
- 2024
- Open Access
- Book
- Editors
- J. David Tàbara
- Alexandros Flamos
- Diana Mangalagiu
- Serafeim Michas
- Book Series
- Springer Climate
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
About this book
This open access book provides the first comprehensive review of the state of the art of social tipping points applied to energy systems from a social interdisciplinary perspective. It does so by presenting a novel theory of systemic and transformative change, linking it to empirical cases assisted with relevant assessment methodologies, including modeling. The authors unveil the narratives and visions, the transformative capacities as well as deliberate strategies and collective actions that at one point in time have been able - or were prevented - to tip a given social-ecological system towards low-carbon, sustainable trajectories in diverse high-intensive carbon regions around the world.
This volume shows that self-reinforcing learning feedbacks connecting transformative solutions and strategies across scales and domains can be induced by targeted policy interventions both in local and regional contexts. It further indicates how changes in behavioral patterns, supported by good governance of disruptive technologies, carbon (dis)investment and finance processes as well as new forms of civic engagement, can create the necessary transformative enabling conditions for the emergence of positive tipping points towards low-carbon sustainable futures.
The book is a must-read for students, researchers, and scholars, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of sustainability, climate, and energy issues and in assessing the potential impacts and effectiveness of strategic interventions aimed at accelerating just sustainable decarbonization processes.
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Table of Contents
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The TIPPING+ Project Journey
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe TIPPING+ Project Journey delves into the interdisciplinary social science approach to addressing tipping points in climate change and sustainable development. Emerging from the EU project (2020–2023), it builds on previous research efforts like MATTISSE, ADAM, and GREEN-WIN. The project emphasizes transformative visions and capacities, highlighting the importance of visioning in system transformations. It introduces the concept of Integrated Climate Governance and the Transformative Policy Appraisal Framework, focusing on positive tipping points. The project also explores the role of narratives and structural conditions in fast decarbonization, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary research. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of justice and equity in regional decarbonization processes, offering a holistic approach to understanding and managing tipping points in complex social-ecological systems.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter introduces and provides the research background of the several contributions of this book. It does so first by briefly reviewing the previous conceptual developments that over the course of two decades eventually led to the EU-funded project TIPPING+. The goal of the project was to improve our understanding of the enabling conditions and complex processes for fast structural sustainable transformations in coal and carbon intensive regions (CCIRs) using the notion of positive tipping points as a boundary concept able to bring together the insights of various social science and interdisciplinary perspectives. The main challenge facing these regions is understood not only as sectoral energy transitioning challenge; but the extent to which multiple socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions for full-systems transformations are taken into account. Second, it presents some of the conceptual and methodological proposals generated by the project and argues for ontological and epistemological diversity and to understand equity and justice as a key drivers and outcomes of positive tipping points. As a research journey, however, the TIPPING+ project did not search for a destination. Instead, it looked for a point of departure, for an opportunity space in which different disciplines, researchers and interests could jointly develop their own ideas and start their own new research ventures. -
Tipping Points Emerge in the Interaction Between Narrative and Reality
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter 'Tipping Points Emerge in the Interaction Between Narrative and Reality' delves into the complex interplay between societal narratives and reality, challenging conventional perspectives on change and stability. It introduces the concept of 'tipping points' as moments when societal narratives fail to adapt to environmental changes, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in creating collective meaning and institutions. The author argues for a shift in focus from explaining change to investigating the creation of stability, offering a fresh perspective on societal dynamics and the role of narratives in shaping our worldview. The chapter is divided into four parts, each exploring different aspects of this interaction, from the role of imagined futures in decision-making to the emergence of tipping points in cognitive space. Throughout, the author emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of societal change, and the role of narratives in both shaping and being shaped by this change.AI Generated
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AbstractThe paper considers narratives as dynamic memory banks and shifts understanding from emphasizing the origins of the present to the emergence of the present. In the construction of reality, imagined futures articulate with knowledge obtained in the past.In another inversion, rather than explain change and consider stability as the norm, it focuses on change as the norm and investigates the creation of stability to explain, for example, why our societies are so slow in acting on climate change.The creation of meaning is the result of an interaction between thinking and experience, like the interaction between a map and the territory it represents. It reduces the complexity of the territory to the simplicity of the map, shaping simultaneously the cognitive map and the territory it represents. Such cognitive structures evolve into dense networks of cognitive dimensions.Tipping points emerge as a particular cognitive structure is no longer enabling a society to deal with its changing environment because it does not fully trace the logical and functional nature of the relationship between the two. To facilitate that, we need to understanding noise as signals for which no interpretative conceptual and cognitive structure has yet been identified. -
Tipping Points. Deep Roots and Contemporary Challenges in Psychology
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter 'Tipping Points. Deep Roots and Contemporary Challenges in Psychology' delves into the historical and contemporary understanding of sudden, qualitative transformations in psychology. It begins by tracing the origins of the concept in crowd psychology and trauma studies, highlighting the role of social context in triggering radical shifts in individual behavior. The text then explores various psychological frameworks, including Gestalt psychology, cognitive approaches to resistance to change, and social representations theory, to understand how these transformations occur. It also discusses the relevance of these concepts to contemporary issues such as environmental changes and the psychology of emergency. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need for further research into the psychological processes underlying tipping points, particularly in the context of energy transition and decarbonization processes. This comprehensive exploration makes the chapter a valuable resource for professionals and researchers interested in the psychology of change.AI Generated
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AbstractAs an object of study, tipping points raise several questions for psychology. Unless one wants to use this term as a generic metaphor to indicate sudden change, any attempt to better define this concept has to take into account some fundamental psychological features including acceptance, promotion or resistance to change, the relationship between quantitative and qualitative transformations, the dynamics between individual, social and societal levels, and the relationship between psychological and environmental changes. All these facets refer to classical approaches and theorisations developed in the early 1900s as well as to more recent systemic models, including societal and cultural psychology approaches and proposals for a socio-ecological psychology. In this chapter, we will identify points of contact with classics such as Insights and Dynamics of field forces, Cognitive dissonance, Grievance, Bounded rationality, Coping, and Socio-dynamical approaches to social representations. Moreover, looking at the recent literature, we will highlight advances in our understanding of tipping points provided by cognitive, socioecological and systemic models. Common to all these views is the attempt to describe and explain the processes that favour or hinder qualitative transformation, both in terms of its perception and its enactment. In this chapter, we will provide an overview of the different approaches mentioned, which should be read more as an agenda for future research rather than an exhaustive review of state of the art. -
Transformations, Agency and Positive Tipping Points: A Resilience-Based Approach
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThis chapter delves into the potential of positive tipping points to drive systemic transformations necessary to tackle global challenges such as biodiversity loss and climate change. It introduces the concept of tipping points as critical junctures that can trigger rapid, irreversible shifts in system behavior. The focus is on understanding how these points can be harnessed to achieve transformative change, while also recognizing the challenges and complexities involved. The text emphasizes the need for a resilience-based approach to transformations, which considers the interplay between system dynamics, feedback loops, and the role of agency. It argues that successful transformations require not only identifying leverage points but also addressing structural barriers, distributing agency, and navigating uncertainties and crises. The chapter explores the dynamics of the transition phase, where systems undergo profound changes, and highlights the importance of capacities such as systems reflexivity, envisioning, and crisis management. By doing so, it offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and facilitating transformative change through the lens of resilience science.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter focuses on a social-ecological systems (SES) resilience-based approach to critically examine the relationship between tipping points and transformative change. Resilience science provides a framework for understanding the dynamics and interdependencies of complex systems and their ability to persist, adapt, or transform in response to change and uncertainty. Transformation refers to a deliberate and fundamental restructuring of a system or a set of relationships that hold a system in a particular state. We argue that the integration of a resilience-based approach to transformations can enhance the understanding of the link between tipping points and transformations, as well as the agency and capacities required to navigate them. In particular, we focus on how transformations research emphasizes the need to: better understand tipping points as one of many aspects of deeper transformation processes, include consideration of the distributed nature of agency and relationships, and how uncertainties will emerge in relation to shocks and disturbances which will surround tipping points. To achieve this, we drawing on the inter- and transdisciplinary scholarship related to transformations to sustainability including leverage points, social-ecological tipping points, disaster resilience, and case studies. We conclude that social tipping alone is insufficient; instead, there is a need for capacities to navigate the entire tipping process, or the full range of tipping dynamics, toward desired outcomes. -
Principles for a Case Study Approach to Social Tipping Points
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the increasing use of the term 'tipping point' across natural and social sciences, focusing on social tipping points (STPs) that drive rapid social system changes. It reviews current methodological approaches and discusses the Flint Water Crisis as a case study to develop principles for empirical research on STPs. The authors define STPs through common criteria such as multiple stable states, abruptness, feedback dynamics, and limited reversibility. The Flint case study demonstrates the challenges and potential of a case study approach to understanding STPs, providing a framework for future research in this area.AI Generated
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AbstractRecent interdisciplinary study has led to significant conceptual advances and a broad empirical evidence base for ecological and climate tipping points. However, the literature has yet to present convincing empirical case studies of social tipping, as the data-driven identification of social tipping points remains a challenge. Arguing that the barriers to such empirical research are largely methodological in nature, we develop methodological guidance to identify social tipping processes in social-ecological system case studies, based on four key elements—multiple stable states, self-reinforcing feedback dynamics, abruptness, and limited reversibility. We apply our approach to food system changes linked to the Flint Water Crisis between 2010 and 2020. We identify seven principles that can simultaneously serve as a seven-step process for social tipping point analysis in any social-ecological system. We highlight two major challenges: the limited availability of high quality, longitudinal social data, and the possibility that value-driven social processes tend to curb abruptness and non-linear change. Utilizing the seven principles to study historical, ongoing, or anticipated cases of social tipping processes could facilitate a deeper understanding of the conditions and limitations of non-linear social change and, therefore, inform efforts to facilitate change towards more sustainable futures. -
Post-war Development Energy Scenarios for Ukraine
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the post-war energy scenarios for Ukraine, focusing on the devastating impact of the 2022 Russian invasion on the country's energy infrastructure and economy. It analyzes the disruption of Ukraine's decarbonization efforts and the potential for leveraging reconstruction to accelerate a sustainable transition. The text examines the pre-invasion decarbonization goals and progress, the shock's disruptive impacts, and the opportunities for strategic integration of climate considerations during recovery. It highlights the importance of adopting EU standards, expanding renewables, enhancing energy efficiency, and integrating with EU grids to balance immediate needs with long-term climate objectives. The analysis emphasizes the need for international support and strategic governance to seize potential tipping points for a resilient and decarbonized energy system. The chapter also discusses the challenges and opportunities in phasing out coal, decentralizing the energy system, and developing green energy sources, making it a crucial read for understanding Ukraine's energy future post-war.AI Generated
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AbstractThe systemic shock provoked by the Russian invasion created a radical discontinuity in the national development policies of Ukraine. This research examines the state of energy policy and the consequences of the ongoing war on plausible decarbonisation scenarios. Ukraine’s commitment to decarbonization was firmly established before 2022, and the National Energy Strategy 2050 already aimed at a substantial 65% reduction in emissions of the economy in comparison to 1990. The war however, precipitated the need to adjust these targets and policy instrument to the current realities. For that, we conducted quantitative research to identify the most GHG intensive regions and sectors and related these to their Gross Regional Product and population. We found out that Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Ivano-Frankivsk turn out be the most critical regions that require special consideration—so for the later region, we also identify particular decarbonization pathways. Our research shows that the Ukrainian war not only unveiled the inherent vulnerabilities of heavily centralised, carbon-dependent systems, but also can lead to the acceleration of non-linear structural low-carbon energy transformations more resilient to global change and systemic interdependences. -
Exploring Transition in Coal- and Carbon-Intensive Regions Through an Interdisciplinary Lens
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the intricate challenges faced by coal- and carbon-intensive regions (CCIRs) as they navigate the complexities of transitioning to low-carbon futures. It highlights the misalignment between national climate policies and local realities, emphasizing the need for a nuanced, interdisciplinary approach to understand and manage these transitions effectively. By exploring social-ecological tipping points and the various phases of transition, the chapter offers valuable insights into the dynamics of change and the potential for positive transformations. The case studies presented provide concrete examples of how different regions are tackling these challenges, underscoring the importance of justice, community engagement, and the integration of multiple perspectives in achieving successful transitions.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter introduces an interdisciplinary perspective to investigate the transition process and to identify empirical evidence of social-ecological tipping points (SETPs) in the case studies on coal and carbon intensive regions (CCIRs) analyzed in the project TIPPING+. The interdisciplinary lens considers different modes of thought, frameworks, and multiple perspectives and interests from diverse stakeholders, a systems’ understanding, and different culture considerations across the CCIRs. Within this interdisciplinary process, we applied various lenses to study the potential for SETPs by combining insights from human geography, social psychology, regional socio-technical systems, and political economy perspectives on the phases of low carbon transitions and on the justice component of the transitions. Subsequently, this chapter gives an overview of how the eight CCIRs case studies in this book have applied various interdisciplinary lenses to investigate the regional transition and the emergence of SETPs. -
Social Tipping Processes in the Transformation of Civitavecchia’s Socio-energy System
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the concept of social tipping processes, which are interdisciplinary frameworks for analyzing complex transformation processes. It focuses on the case of Civitavecchia, a long-standing 'fossil energy' city near Rome, where various agents and practices concurred to obstruct and eventually terminate a planned fossil-to-fossil conversion of a coal plant in favor of a renewable future. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the processes of destabilization and disruption that can trigger social tipping processes, highlighting the role of multiple heterogeneous agents and practices in different scales and temporalities. The case of Civitavecchia is used to illustrate how these processes can lead to effective transformations of fossil socio-energy systems, offering insights into the dynamics of sustainability transformations.AI Generated
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AbstractThe chapter introduces the notion of ‘social tipping processes’, an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of complex transformation processes which helps to identify the sequence of, broadly understood, socio-political events that can trigger positive or negative dynamics of transformations of current social-ecological systems. Social tipping processes are first framed and delineated, then this category is applied to a spatially and temporally delimited empirical case, the long-standing Italian energy city of Civitavecchia—near Rome—to investigate the transformation to renewables of the local socio-energy systems as a dynamic and relational process. The chapter concludes by outlining the main paths forward for a sustainable future, as advocated by the social tipping processes perspective put into action in the case under scrutiny. -
Realizing Alternative Energy Futures: From the Promise of a Petroleum Future to Imagining Lofoten as the Green Islands
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter examines the 20-year debate over oil and gas exploration in the Lofoten region of Norway, highlighting the social movements and political shifts that led to the halting of petroleum development. It explores the emergence of alternative visions of a low-carbon future, driven by concerns for environmental sustainability, traditional livelihoods, and tourism. The analysis sheds light on the complex interplay between economic interests, environmental concerns, and societal values, offering insights into the potential for transformative change in energy policy.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter examines the 20-year-long oil dispute in Lofoten and the decision to deviate from oil and gas development in the region. Our objectives are three-fold: (1) to better understand how carbon-intensive development pathways can rapidly shift towards decarbonization, (2) to yield insights into how alternative narratives about the future materialize in historically pro-carbon contexts such as Norway, and (3) examining to which extent we can identify and assess potential social tipping events that impacted the decision to deviate from oil and gas development in Lofoten. Drawing on a qualitative framework, we address our objectives by identifying and assessing important events between 2000–2020 that impacted the decision to halt plans for oil and gas development and by examining how alternative visions of an oil free Lofoten emerged and took shape over the last two decades. We argue that the fact that the Lofoten regions remains closed to petroleum development is unusual given the significance of petroleum production to the Norwegian economy and the dominant logic of the Norwegian resource regime. Examining the Lofoten case thus yields insights into conditions and interventions that can both unsettle fossil fuel energy systems and foster lasting transformation towards less-carbon intensive emissions trajectories. -
Exploring the Role of Identities and Perceptions of the Future in a Post-coal Mining Region: The Demolition of Andorra Coal-fired Cooling Towers (Spain) as a Tipping Point
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThis chapter delves into the complex dynamics of identity and perception shifts in the context of energy transitions, focusing on the Andorra coal-fired cooling towers demolition in Spain. It examines how the region's cultural identity, shaped by coal mining, influences the community's acceptance of decarbonisation policies. The study analyzes stakeholder perceptions and the emergence of new identities post-transition, emphasizing the role of public authorities in supporting local communities. The demolition event serves as a tipping point, revealing the challenges and opportunities in creating a sustainable future. The chapter underscores the need for anticipatory and transformative institutional capacities to navigate these complex transitions effectively.AI Generated
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AbstractIn May 2022, the last cooling tower of the coal-fired power plant in the Spanish region of Andorra in Teruel province was demolished. After forty years in operation such an event had a huge emotional effect on the local population, since much of the local identity and tradition was built around this industrial emblem. On the one hand, it represented a final symbolic farewell to a way of life around coal, now perceived to have inevitably ceased to exist. On the other hand, it highlighted the need to accelerate the full regional transformation towards a new socio-economic structure whose agents of change, content and new identities were not yet well-defined. Our research explores the role of identities and perceptions of the future as key constraining or enabling factors in tipping former carbon-intensive regions towards clean energy and sustainable development pathways. Understanding how local populations see their uncertainties about the future, and examining other views on relative deprivation and inequality, are central in developing enabling governance arrangements and continuous learning feedback loops required in rapid socio-energy transformations. We found out that embracing transformative change towards green transformations may entail adopting more diversified, self-defined complex forms of collective sense-making processes based on project identities. -
Narrative-Network Dynamics in Tipping Processes Towards Low-Carbon Energy Futures: The Case of Indonesia
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThis chapter delves into the complex interplay of narrative-network dynamics in the shift towards low-carbon energy futures, with a focus on Indonesia's coal-rich regions. It underscores the pivotal role of social networks and their transformative visions in catalyzing systemic change. By employing a mixed-method empirical approach, the research examines key agents' interactions and visions in two contrasting provinces, Banten and Bali. The study integrates Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) and narrative analysis to map out different pathways and explore the content of transformative visions. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is also employed to track agent structure dynamics, providing insights into potential social thresholds and tipping points. The research highlights the potential of these methods to anticipate and drive positive change in energy systems, offering a nuanced understanding of the cultural and political contexts that shape transformation.AI Generated
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AbstractDeliberate actions by social networks and their transformative visions can generate the necessary conditions for the emergence of positive tipping points towards sustainability, such as those that create qualitative, structural changes in sustainable development goals. However, there is a need for more empirical research conducted in non-Western countries to assess these complex processes. In this research, we customised Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) and combined it with participatory narrative analysis, social-ecological network analysis and Q-methodology to capture the transformation processes in social network structures with their guiding visions in two coal- and carbon-intensive regions (CCIRs) of Indonesia: Banten and Bali Province. Our research approach tracked transformation narratives and visions and their associated network dynamics and showed that they could be used as anticipatory social tipping signals (ASTS) in deliberate transformation-oriented tipping point processes. Our study revealed two guiding visions actors use to guide their transformative actions to change the energy system. Those transformations emphasise (i) governance coordination and (ii) socio-economic diversification. We argue that making explicit the presence of and promoting dialogue among different visions towards sustainability can promote new opportunities for mutual learning and transformative strategy building among diverse social networks. -
Situated Knowledge and Energy Transformations: A Socio-Anthropological Exploration
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter 'Situated Knowledge and Energy Transformations: A Socio-Anthropological Exploration' delves into the sociocultural and community preconditions that influence local communities' engagement with rapid policy-driven energy transitions. Focusing on the small island community of San Pietro, involved in the EU's Just Transition Mechanism, the research aims to understand the aspirations, economic conditions, and cultural perceptions that shape community participation in energy transitions. The study contrasts a model of socially just transition with an exploitative model, examining the roles, perceptions, and dynamics of agency at the local level. The anthropological framework draws on the concept of 'energyscapes' to explore how energy transitions are perceived and negotiated by local communities. The research methodology includes participant observation, interviews, and stakeholder workshops, revealing insights into the community's imaginaries about energy infrastructure and their ability to transform the system. Key findings highlight the local community's unique identity and the marginalization they experience, as well as the limited agency they possess in shaping their energy future. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of local identities and cultural factors to facilitate just and sustainable energy transitions.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter focuses on San Pietro island case study and uses an ethnographic, micro and qualitative approach. San Pietro island is facing Sulcis, the southwestern corner of the Sardinia, a region of coal-mining and industrial vocation currently involved in a challenging energy transition. San Pietro local residents claim their ethnic difference as descendants of the eighteenth century settlers from Liguria. Today, contrary to Sulcis, the island benefits from several EU grants aiming to improve energy efficiency and renewables. I explore if the orientation of the community towards a shared idea of its past and future could be a determining factor in triggering a positive and stable tipping point towards decarbonization. I use energyscape framework to understand the spatial dimension and ethnography to explore local imaginaries on renewables as context for examination of social agency. I find that the attempt at deep transformations driven by policy plans may experience implementation difficulties, since local residents’ futures and horizons do not align to the timescales, worldviews on humans or technology, or many other dimensions and narratives arriving “from outside” the community. -
Tipping Away from Coal?: Exploring Narratives and Tipping Dynamics in the Phaseout of Coal on Svalbard
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter 'Tipping Away from Coal?: Exploring Narratives and Tipping Dynamics in the Phaseout of Coal on Svalbard' delves into the complex social-ecological tipping points that have driven the phaseout of coal on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. It explores how societal narratives and political decisions have shaped the transition from coal to clean energy, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities presented by this shift. The case study of Svalbard offers valuable insights into the broader global efforts to reduce reliance on coal and carbon-intensive industries, making it a crucial read for those interested in energy policy, environmental science, and social change.AI Generated
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AbstractThis chapter explores societal tipping points in energy transitions in the Arctic through the case of the phasing out of coal mining on Svalbard. The economy of the region, which has high geopolitical importance in the Arctic, was founded based on extractivism. More than a century ago, coal mining not only consolidated as Svalbard’s main industrial activity, but also crystalized in the region’s identity and in Norway’s strategy for sustaining its presence on the archipelago. International agreements and debates concerning green transitions, in combination with fluctuating coal prices and ageing infrastructure, have provoked the emergence of various narratives concerning the future of the archipelago. These narratives entail both low-carbon alternatives for the local economy, and alternative energy sources to power human life on Svalbard. This chapter examines these narratives, focusing on the interplay between demographic and socio-economic developments of the past 20 years. Several kinds of societal tipping points can be observed, from politico-economic to demographic and socio-cultural tipping points. The question remains, however, whether the Svalbard case also exemplifies tipping points in the biophysical dimensions of social-ecological systems. This will in large part depend on the ability to find viable energy alternatives that harmonize with regional geopolitical security. -
Confronting Local and Global Tipping Narratives: Green Energy Development in the Arctic and Why Greenland Is Not for Sale
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the intricate balance between local and global perspectives on green energy development in the Arctic, with a focus on Greenland. It discusses the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of resource extraction, the geopolitical tensions surrounding access to Arctic resources, and the potential for a just and sustainable transition. By examining the case of Greenland, the chapter offers insights into the complex interplay of local resource management and global energy demands, highlighting the need for equitable and environmentally responsible practices.AI Generated
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AbstractThis research addresses a confrontation of narratives usually overlooked in global-local discourses about green energy futures by focusing on the case of Greenland. On the one hand, the call for keeping the vast amounts of Greenland’s fossil fuel deposits in the ground, as one of the most efficient and fastest strategies to limit global GHG emissions and avoid a climate catastrophe -hence preventing a negative global climate tipping point. And on the other, the need to exploit and provide alternative mineral resources for the global green energy transformation – hence enabling a global positive tipping point towards a sustainable development trajectory. For that, we trace the historical local conditions and events that eventually led towards green development trajectory pathways. These include indigenous groups’ opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic waters and more recently, the consideration of alternative resource governance mechanisms in support of a low-carbon transformation. We argue that overcoming such confrontation requires reconciling both Natural Resource Justice with Earth System Justice principles that consider the rights, needs, worldviews, and institutional traditions of local communities. Among them, the impossibility of privately owning land across generations in Greenland stems as a possible example of disruptive tipping intervention on how Western societies could learn to relate to biophysical systems in more sustainable ways to cope with accelerated global environmental change. -
Assessing Macroeconomic Effects of a Carbon Tax as a Tipping Intervention in Economies Undergoing Coal Phase-Out: The Cases of Poland and Greece
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Download PDF-versionThe chapter explores the concept of tipping points in socioeconomic systems and their relevance to climate policy. It introduces the MEMO model to simulate the macroeconomic effects of a carbon tax in Poland and Greece, focusing on GDP, unemployment, and sectoral impacts. The study highlights the potential for a carbon tax to accelerate decarbonisation and discusses the need for revenue recycling mechanisms to mitigate adverse effects on vulnerable households and industries. The results indicate that while Poland may face more significant economic impacts, Greece could see a more modest but still substantial reduction in CO2 emissions. The chapter also discusses the implications of carbon tax implementation at both national and regional levels, emphasising the need for targeted support to facilitate a just transition in carbon-intensive regions.AI Generated
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AbstractIntroducing carbon taxation could accelerate systemic change towards a decarbonised future. In this book chapter, we aim to test to which extent this policy can be considered a tipping intervention that can encourage fast green technological innovation and infrastructure development in coal and carbon-intensive regions (CCIRs) and how this policy affects the sectoral structure of the economy. We use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (ΜΕΜΟ) to assess the impacts of implementing a carbon tax on GDP and unemployment in Poland and Greece. These two countries are currently phasing out coal. Our results show that carbon tax implementation significantly affects the macroeconomic indicators and may also lead to considerable labour market effects on sectors other than mining, such as the light industry and construction in Greece and energy-intensive and advanced manufacturing industries in Poland. We also discuss funding and recycling revenue mechanisms that could enable the successful implementation of a carbon tax. We conclude that it would be more reasonable to treat carbon tax as an additional political tool that must be combined with other interventions coordinated with an overall broader full-system transformation narrative rather than a single tool that can determine or ex-ante detect any future tipping point. -
Transformative Emergence: Research Challenges for Enabling Social-ecological Tipping Points Toward Regional Sustainability Transformations
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter delves into the concept of social-ecological tipping points (SETPs) as a strategic approach to accelerate regional sustainability transformations. It highlights three key challenges: acknowledging diverse social science contributions, designing open transdisciplinary assessment processes, and enabling transformative emergence in coal and carbon-intensive regions. The text emphasizes the potential of SETPs to drive positive change by creating conditions for sustainable development goals, while also underscoring the need for robust conceptualization, empirical operationalization, and policy use. The discussion is enriched by insights from various disciplines, including psychology, economics, and policy science, offering a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics involved in sustainability transformations.AI Generated
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AbstractA crucial task to accelerate global decarbonisation is to understand how to enable fast, equitable, low-carbon transformations in Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions (CCIRs). In this early literature review we underlined the relevance of the boundary concept of social-ecological tipping points (SETPs) and showed that the research and policy usage of SETPs applied to accelerate structural regional sustainability transformations faces three key challenges: (I) integrating theoretical and empirical contributions from diverse social and ecological sciences, together with complexity theory (II) designing open transdisciplinary assessment processes able to represent multiple qualities of systemic change and enable regionally situated transformative capacities, and (III) moving away from one-directional metaphors of social change, or static or homogeneous conceptions of individual agency and single equilibrium in energy transitions; and instead, focus on understanding the conditions and capacities for the emergence of systemic transformations and regenerative processes across multiple levels and forms of agency. We refer to these complex and place-situated processes as learning to enable regional transformative emergence. -
Correction to: Positive Tipping Points Towards Sustainability
- Open Access
Download PDF-versionThe chapter correction focuses on rectifying an error in the author affiliation of Franziska Mey in Chapters 7 and 16 of 'Positive Tipping Points Towards Sustainability'. This update underscores the necessity of precise and up-to-date information in academic publications, ensuring the integrity and reliability of the research presented. The correction is a vital step in maintaining the accuracy and credibility of the scholarly work, emphasizing the significance of meticulous attention to detail in academic publishing.AI Generated
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- Title
- Positive Tipping Points Towards Sustainability
- Editors
-
J. David Tàbara
Alexandros Flamos
Diana Mangalagiu
Serafeim Michas
- Copyright Year
- 2024
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
- Electronic ISBN
- 978-3-031-50762-5
- Print ISBN
- 978-3-031-50761-8
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50762-5
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