Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

Transition to a sustainable electricity system 3
may well be realised. Yet, the real challenge lies in realising the reductions
of 50% up to 80% in 2050 that are necessary to curb human-induced climate
change. Discussions regarding the type of strategies necessary to realise
these far-reaching reductions can be connected to similar debates regarding
strategies for a sustainable development. A major issue has been whether
more ‘incremental’ eco-efficiency strategies will be able to deliver, whether
more radical technological changes are required, whether we need more
fundamental changes in social and institutional frameworks, or whether a
symbiosis between these is possible. This issue is also of central concern to
this book, which focuses on the electricity sector as a key system in the
change towards a carbon-lean and sustainable society. The next section
introduces main lines in this debate and also focuses on the challenge of
transforming the electricity system, and this is followed by a clarification of
the plan of the book.
1.2 What path to sustainability 5 ?
The concept of sustainability has come to occupy a permanent place on the
public agenda (Hajer, 1995). On the one hand, the academic community,
governments, businesses, and broader society recognise sustainability’s
importance for the future health and welfare of the planet and its inhabitants.
On the other hand, an accepted definition of sustainability continues to be
elusive. The most familiar definition comes from the 1987 Brundtland
Commission Report entitled, Our Common Future, which describes
sustainability as development that “meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(WCED, 1987: 43). Since that publication, dozens of new interpretations and
working definitions of sustainable development have appeared (e.g. Lélé,
1991; Brooks, 1992), sparking debate over what sustainability really means
and how to realise it.
Over the past decades, a variety of paradigms for enacting sustainability
have emerged. For example, several authors argue that eco-efficiency
provides an important path to global sustainable development (e.g.,
Schmidheiny, 1992; Von Weizsäcker et al., 1997). In their view, market
signals (e.g., tax incentives, tradable pollution credits, eco-certifications)
should be refashioned to reflect the environmental costs of production,
resource use, recycling, and disposal. Ecological modernisation provides a
similar perspective as it “assumes that existing political, economic and
social institutions can internalise the care for the environment” (Hajer,
5 Parts from this section are based on Hartman, Hofman and Stafford (1999) and (2002).