sures will become increasingly important for the mitigation of both air quality and
climate change and policy development will require analytical tools which are
capable of dealing with a wider range of measures and changes, which improve
energy efficiency and air quality at the same time, while at least maintaining the same
level of services. These measures cover a very wide spectrum, going from the change
of production processes in industry, to shifts in transport modes, to changes in
buildings, urban structures and plans, and in citizens’ way of life.
Such important structural societal changes will require the involvement of a
larger range of actors, with the citizen as a key stakeholder (Laniak et al. 2013). In
many cases, citizens will need to modify their perceptions and behaviour: a process
that may take much longer than the adoption of a new technology or a new regulation. Even when all the impacts are accounted for in a scenario analysis or in an
optimization procedure, the final output of current tools is a classical “plan”, i.e. a
set of measures to be implemented, by a possibly “almighty” decision-maker. These
plans disregard crucial issues, notably how these measures might be accepted by
citizens, how long it will take to implement them and through what normative,
economic, or simply persuasive ways they can be actuated. This, on the contrary,
requires a long-term perspective and it is not sufficient to state a traditional air
quality and GHG emission reduction plan with fixed actions and fixed targets to be
achieved in a given number of years. What is needed is a continuous process, which
takes into account the continuous changes of society and evolution of technology,
as well as external conditions (such as, for instance, international agreements on
climate or on transboundary pollution) and tries to accompany and foster the
transition of society toward cleaner air and lower carbon emissions.
City and regional authorities cannot impose such a transition, particularly if
behavioural changes are required, but they can certainly influence its direction and
speed. Managing this transition is a complex task for city and regional authorities,
that requires taking into account the governance levels to correctly target the areas
where control measures should be implemented for highest efficiency and, at the
same time, requires being able to confront environmental equity issues, public
criticism and even protest.
Increasing awareness of this complexity has triggered the development of the
“Transition Management (TM)” concept. Pioneered at the end of the ‘90s in the
Netherlands in sectors such as water management, energy supply or mobility (e.g.
Rotmans et al. 2001), it has been taken up in the meantime in several other
countries and by international organisations such as the OECD (2014) or EEA
(2014) in order to guide and inform innovation policy and associated sectoral
policies.
Transition Management has also been proposed as guiding strategy for tackling
major societal challenges in other areas (CEC 2011). Even if the European
Commission suggests an evolving approach for moving to a competitive low carbon economy (EC 2011, EU 2013), in the development of plans for cleaner air
together with low GHG emission, TM can be considered as quite new approach.
To apply such a new concept, decision makers must be supported by a systematic framework that can be adapted to the specific circumstances of the different
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G. Guariso and M. Volta
climate change and policy development will require analytical tools which are
capable of dealing with a wider range of measures and changes, which improve
energy efficiency and air quality at the same time, while at least maintaining the same
level of services. These measures cover a very wide spectrum, going from the change
of production processes in industry, to shifts in transport modes, to changes in
buildings, urban structures and plans, and in citizens’ way of life.
Such important structural societal changes will require the involvement of a
larger range of actors, with the citizen as a key stakeholder (Laniak et al. 2013). In
many cases, citizens will need to modify their perceptions and behaviour: a process
that may take much longer than the adoption of a new technology or a new regulation. Even when all the impacts are accounted for in a scenario analysis or in an
optimization procedure, the final output of current tools is a classical “plan”, i.e. a
set of measures to be implemented, by a possibly “almighty” decision-maker. These
plans disregard crucial issues, notably how these measures might be accepted by
citizens, how long it will take to implement them and through what normative,
economic, or simply persuasive ways they can be actuated. This, on the contrary,
requires a long-term perspective and it is not sufficient to state a traditional air
quality and GHG emission reduction plan with fixed actions and fixed targets to be
achieved in a given number of years. What is needed is a continuous process, which
takes into account the continuous changes of society and evolution of technology,
as well as external conditions (such as, for instance, international agreements on
climate or on transboundary pollution) and tries to accompany and foster the
transition of society toward cleaner air and lower carbon emissions.
City and regional authorities cannot impose such a transition, particularly if
behavioural changes are required, but they can certainly influence its direction and
speed. Managing this transition is a complex task for city and regional authorities,
that requires taking into account the governance levels to correctly target the areas
where control measures should be implemented for highest efficiency and, at the
same time, requires being able to confront environmental equity issues, public
criticism and even protest.
Increasing awareness of this complexity has triggered the development of the
“Transition Management (TM)” concept. Pioneered at the end of the ‘90s in the
Netherlands in sectors such as water management, energy supply or mobility (e.g.
Rotmans et al. 2001), it has been taken up in the meantime in several other
countries and by international organisations such as the OECD (2014) or EEA
(2014) in order to guide and inform innovation policy and associated sectoral
policies.
Transition Management has also been proposed as guiding strategy for tackling
major societal challenges in other areas (CEC 2011). Even if the European
Commission suggests an evolving approach for moving to a competitive low carbon economy (EC 2011, EU 2013), in the development of plans for cleaner air
together with low GHG emission, TM can be considered as quite new approach.
To apply such a new concept, decision makers must be supported by a systematic framework that can be adapted to the specific circumstances of the different
106
G. Guariso and M. Volta