The first seminar in our series took place on 9 June 2010, featuring presentations from Frank Geels (click to view/download) and Peter Pearson (click to view/download). The main theme of the session was: how useful can past experiences of energy transitions be as guides to the coming transition from unsustainable to sustainable energy production and consumption?

The discussion following the talks focused on several topics, including:

• how far can energy transitions be managed, particularly when neoliberal economic and political assumptions are still dominant?


• what influence do changing structures of political governance have on transitions?


• will transition be predominantly driven by scarcity or crisis, and what effect might this have on the course it takes?


• how is behavioural change caused, and how much influence do energy prices really have?


• does the current debate focus too much on how to motivate responses from individual consumers? and


• how might a technological transition towards sustainable energy production overcome the inertia embedded in old, unsustainable technologies?

Click here to view/download a PDF version of the summary. What are your responses to these questions? We invite discussion below via comments.