A multi-level analysis of net-zero transitions: Acceleration and new obstacles
At this Original Thinking Lecture, Frank Geels, Eddie Davies Professor of Sustainability Transition, will give his inaugural lecture as Eddie Davies Chair.
- Event Time
- 1 May 12:00 - 1 May 13:00
- Event Location
- Alliance Manchester Business School (Online also available)
- Event Type
- Business speakers, Online, Original Thinking Applied
At this Original Thinking Lecture, Frank Geels, Eddie Davies Professor of Sustainability Transition, will give his inaugural lecture as Eddie Davies Chair.
Net-zero transitions have entered a new and confusing phase since the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the gas price crisis.
On the one hand, net-zero transitions are accelerating in electricity and auto-mobility systems, driven by cost reductions and increased deployment of solar-PV, wind turbines, and electric vehicles.
On the other hand, political populism and societal acceptance problems are leading to delays and the weakening of targets in some countries (like the UK).
In this lecture Professor Frank Geels aims to make sense of these contradictory developments, using socio-technical transitions theory and wide-ranging empirical information across emerging niche-innovations, existing systems, and exogenous (‘landscape’) developments.
Frank Geels
Frank Geels is Eddie Davies Professor of Sustainability Transitions at the Alliance Manchester Business School.
Geels is a world-leading scholar on socio-technical sustainability transitions in energy, mobility, buildings, manufacturing, and agri-food systems.
He is well-known for his work on the Multi-Level Perspective, which conceptualises transition dynamics using insights from evolutionary economics, innovation studies, institutional theory, and political science.
Geels has published 7 books and 107 peer-reviewed articles, including in Science (2x), Nature Climate Change (2x), and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (5x).
He has received multiple awards and honours, and was selected in the 2014, 2019-2023 Highly Cited Researchers lists. He was a lead author of the Working Group III contribution to the 2022 IPCC report, is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (EEA), and has written invited reports for the OECD, EEA, European Commission, and UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
This event will be facilitated by Andrew McMeekin, Professor of Innovation at the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) and Alliance Manchester Business School.