18.07.2022

New TATuP issue “Energy sufficiency”

Can modern societies get by with less energy than before? The current TATuP issue looks at the opportunities offered by the sufficiency concept and scenarios for lower energy consumption.

The structural dependence on fossil fuel imports is currently being relentlessly demonstrated to Western industrialized countries by the war in Ukraine. At the same time, they are confronted with the urgent challenge of effectively countering climate change. Against this backdrop and in view of the great energy saving potential, which has hardly been exploited so far, a new sufficiency policy seems urgently needed.

This thesis is the starting point of the current TATuP issue “Energy sufficiency: Conceptual considerations, modeling, and scenarios for less energy consumption,” edited by Benjamin Best, Michaela Christ, Tilman Santarius, and Frauke Wiese.

With energy sufficiency against multiple crises

The authors of the Special Topic look at models and scenarios on energy sufficiency, highlight differences between various concepts and definitions, and thus broaden the understanding of sufficiency. Individual contributions also illustrate how current crises could be solved with the energy sufficiency approach and what positive side effects could be expected – for example, greater social justice.

Interview on sufficiency policy

In the TATuP interview, Uwe Schneidewind, Mayor of the City of Wuppertal, talks about the importance of energy sufficiency in times of crisis and ways to incorporate sufficiency into political action. As a sustainability researcher, Schneidewind headed the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, one of the most important institutions for sufficiency research in Germany.

Also in the current issue of TATuP: a research article on the question of whether artificial intelligence can assume leadership tasks in companies, conference reports, book reviews, and news from the TA community. (18.07.2022)

Further links: