140 P. NAEF ET AL.
European Energy Union, of a strategy made up of various dimensions
including the reinforcement of energy efficiency to reduce the European
Union dependency on energy imports, and climate actions to decarbonise the economy (European Commission 2018). The Energy Union
is being developed in five domains of European Union Energy Policy:
(i) security of supply (in 2015, the EU28 imported 54% of energy supplied); (ii) sustainability (in 2015 fossil fuels contributed 75% of the fuel
mix of EU energy supplied); (iii) greenhouse gas emissions (which for
the EU in 2015 was 22% less than the equivalent measure in 1990); (iv)
the role of renewable energy in energy supply and use (accounting for
16% of final energy consumption for the EU in 2015); and (v) competitiveness of the EU in the energy sector (European Commission 2017,
cited in: Genus and Iskandarova 2018: 11).
Energy security is also a key policy issue shaping political interest in
energy supply. Here, Coutard and Shove (2018) bring a more nuanced
approach to the question of supply and demand, arguing that unlimited and reliable energy has enabled the normalisation of various forms
of energy-greedy consumption, from the use of washing machines and
refrigerators, to constant ICT connectivity and the increasing use of
air-conditioning in certain contexts. Thus, policy framings around energy
could also consider ‘How much of what is enough?’ (Spengler 2016),
or offer a more explicit focus on sufficiency. Debates around sufficiency lead into more fundamental and societal questions, such as what
services should be enabled, in what contexts, and towards what needs.
Taking these debates to heart, and drawing on findings from the H2020
ENERGISE 1 project, Sahakian et al. (2019) propose a definition of sufficiency which accounts for absolute reductions in resource use, while
also challenging collective conventions around household energy use, as
well as setting upper (and lower) limits to consumption. This approach
is built on the premise that while efficiency is a desired approach
towards energy transitions, sufficiency should be considered as the first
step. Despite the efforts of projects such as ENERGISE, bringing sufficiency debates and ideas into mainstream political and societal discourse
remains a considerable challenge.
1 See www.energise-project.eu.
European Energy Union, of a strategy made up of various dimensions
including the reinforcement of energy efficiency to reduce the European
Union dependency on energy imports, and climate actions to decarbonise the economy (European Commission 2018). The Energy Union
is being developed in five domains of European Union Energy Policy:
(i) security of supply (in 2015, the EU28 imported 54% of energy supplied); (ii) sustainability (in 2015 fossil fuels contributed 75% of the fuel
mix of EU energy supplied); (iii) greenhouse gas emissions (which for
the EU in 2015 was 22% less than the equivalent measure in 1990); (iv)
the role of renewable energy in energy supply and use (accounting for
16% of final energy consumption for the EU in 2015); and (v) competitiveness of the EU in the energy sector (European Commission 2017,
cited in: Genus and Iskandarova 2018: 11).
Energy security is also a key policy issue shaping political interest in
energy supply. Here, Coutard and Shove (2018) bring a more nuanced
approach to the question of supply and demand, arguing that unlimited and reliable energy has enabled the normalisation of various forms
of energy-greedy consumption, from the use of washing machines and
refrigerators, to constant ICT connectivity and the increasing use of
air-conditioning in certain contexts. Thus, policy framings around energy
could also consider ‘How much of what is enough?’ (Spengler 2016),
or offer a more explicit focus on sufficiency. Debates around sufficiency lead into more fundamental and societal questions, such as what
services should be enabled, in what contexts, and towards what needs.
Taking these debates to heart, and drawing on findings from the H2020
ENERGISE 1 project, Sahakian et al. (2019) propose a definition of sufficiency which accounts for absolute reductions in resource use, while
also challenging collective conventions around household energy use, as
well as setting upper (and lower) limits to consumption. This approach
is built on the premise that while efficiency is a desired approach
towards energy transitions, sufficiency should be considered as the first
step. Despite the efforts of projects such as ENERGISE, bringing sufficiency debates and ideas into mainstream political and societal discourse
remains a considerable challenge.
1 See www.energise-project.eu.