Energy Transition, Anticipation and Change: A Study on the Anticipatory Experiences of the Low Carbon Society

Abstract

A paradigm shift towards the so-called low carbon society is one of the main challenges that our societies have to face in the near future. In the framework of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program research project MILESECURE-2050, empirical research was carried out to understand the social dynamics that may characterize this change in the future. The research involved a Europe-wide study of the communities that “anticipate”, at local level, some basic features of a future low carbon society, i.e. Anticipatory Experiences. The research analysed over 90 Anticipatory Experiences in 19 European countries. Some of the experiences analysed attempted to change a single aspect of their communities, such as developing sustainable transport, energy-efficient housing or the generation of property-level renewable energy. Others wanted to produce a holistic sustainable community that incorporated a fully functional and independent low energy network. In summary, all the Anticipatory Experiences developed, or are actively developing, sustainable ways of producing, consuming and transporting energy. The Anticipatory Experiences were found to be operating at different local scales, ranging from neighbourhoods and towns to major cities. Their anticipatory character may be defined as the ability to take decisions and develop practical solutions today, in order to resolve issues that the society in general, and the local community in particular, will have to confront in the near future, first of all those involving climate change and the depletion of “carbon” energy resources. Taking as its starting point the empirical evidence of the research, the paper investigates how the anticipatory features of these communities resulted in structural changes in both the energy system and the local social system and in radical changes in individual behaviours.