Enabling Positive Tipping Points towards clean-energy transitions in Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions

The overall goal of TIPPING+ is to understand why and under which conditions a given social-ecological regional system heavily dependent on coal and carbon-intensive activities may flip into a low-carbon, clean energy development trajectory – or on the contrary may fall into an opposite trajectory with all its negative implications. TIPPING+ will provide an empirical in-depth social science understanding of fundamental changes in socio-demographic, geographical, psychological, cultural, political, and economic patterns which give rise to Social-Ecological Tipping Points (SETPs), both positive and negative.
Main focus of TIPPING+ is the participatory co-production of knowledge on the driving forces and deliberate tipping interventions leading to the emergence of positive tipping points towards clean-energy transitions in European CCIRs. A typology based on at least 20 regional case studies will be generated with an early engagement of key practitioners examining: 1) New trends, changes and impacts of energy transitions on demographic structures and geographical distribution patterns in gender, migration and youth 2) Community, gender and psychological factors related to energy transitions 3) Policy interventions and governance factors 4) Economic transformations on employment, distributional welfare and energy and natural resources.
TIPPING+ proposes that the achievement of desired futures and deliberate transformations in social-ecological systems depend on three main components:

  • collective visions and narratives which frame and provide actionable meaning
  • the kinds of transformative capacities to achieve these visions, and
  • key strategies, solutions and socio-technical innovations derived from such capacities

Budget: ~3 M. Euro

Duration: 2020-2023

More information: https://tipping-plus.eu