On this blog, we usually concentrate on the policies and daily politics of Germany’s Energiewende. Saliem Fakir takes a step back and explains the requirements and the process of low carbon transitions – and what this means for South Africa. The term transition has come to be used in different ways in recent years: describing a systems innovations approach that involves new technologies displacing old technology. Or a more ambitious goal of socio-ecological conversion, wherein transitions occur between different societal energy regimes, ways of organizing society and living alternative social values. Given that there is little historical experience with low carbon transitions (LCTs), the transition must be based on learning by doing. How such a transition might unfold in South Africa could be gleaned from the different energy transition approaches taken by countries, such as Germany, China, Japan and South Korea. The systems innovations transition approach suggests that a transition will involve mainstreaming of new technologies over old ones with concomitant changes in markets, user practices, shifts in policy, laws, cultural discourses as well as … Continue reading The conceptual underpinnings of a low carbon transition