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  • Book
  • Open Access
  • © 2020

Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions

Practices of legitimation and accountable governance

  • Presents a new framework for sustainable energy transitions
  • Bridges the worlds of academia and practice
  • Argues that an analytical approach to accountable governance is needed to further sustainable energy transitions

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Hardcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
  3. Conclusion

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103
    2. Conclusion: Legitimation and Accountability in Energy Transitions Research

      • Siddharth Sareen, Timothy Moss, Christian Lund, Håvard Haarstad, Benjamin Sovacool, Steven Wolf
      Pages 117-135Open Access
  4. Correction to: Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions

    • Siddharth Sareen
    Pages C1-C2Open Access
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 137-168

About this book

This open access book reframes sustainable energy transitions as being a matter of resolving accountability crises. It demonstrates how the empirical study of several practices of legitimation can analytically deconstruct energy transitions, and presents a typology of these practices to help determine whether energy transitions contribute to sustainability.


The real-world challenge of climate change requires sustainable energy transitions. This presents a crisis of accountability legitimated through situated practices in a wide range of cases including: solar energy transitions in Portugal, urban energy transitions in Germany, forestland conflicts in Indonesia, urban carbon emission targets in Norway, transport electrification in the Nordic region, and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. By synthesising these cases, chapters identify various dimensions wherein practices of legitimation construct specific accountability relations. This book deftly illustrates the value of an analytical approach focused on accountable governance to enable sustainable energy transitions. It will be of great use to both academics and practitioners working in the field of energy transitions.



Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Geography Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Siddharth Sareen

About the editor

Siddharth Sareen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

Hardcover Book USD 31.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access