The spatial dimension of energy transition policies, practices and technologies

Implementing a transition towards a sustainable energy future requires policy changes and innovations at all levels across multiple societal landscapes. Production processes, uses, and energy conservation are interrelated policies, which move regions closer to their socioeconomic and ecological sustainability targets. This special issue will host benchmark works on the spatial dynamics and spatial effects of policies regulating energy transitions, from conservation to incentives supporting the adoption of new technologies, across several global regions. The SI welcomes theoretical and empirical contributions especially related, but not limited, to the following themes: • Region-specific policies and best practices on energy efficiency; • Geographical, institutional, and social-cultural features affecting the space-specific impact of energy policies; • Spatial lock-in and peer effects in the adoption of energy efficiency technologies; • Policy and/or technological regional spillovers; • Spatial macroeconomic patterns of energy transition policies; • Spatial patterns and drivers in the adoption of energy efficiency technologies. The SI offers a comprehensive picture of the spatial implications and dimensions of energy efficiency policies. The structure of the SI will move from micro studies dealing with the impact of policies on firms, while also showing the territorial features enhancing, or hampering, the adoption of technological-frontier cost functions, to aggregate, general equilibrium studies, showing long-run preconditions for equilibrium to be reached both in the energy, as well as on all other, markets, through CGE simulations. The SI will offer policymakers and academics a comprehensive and internally coherent body of knowledge supporting evidence-based decisions on the optimal allocation of policy support.