Individuals, collectives, and energy transition: Analysing the motivators and barriers of European decarbonisation

Abstract

Europe's energy transition journey involves more than a straightforward setting of goals, and designing policies and measures to achieve these. A successful energy transition relies on multi-faceted dynamics. This study identifies the barriers and motivators affecting the energy transition from the perspective of three decision-making levels: a) formal social units, b) collective decision-making units, and c) individual consumers engaging in joint contracts; and technological foci that constitute the core of EU Energy Efficiency Directive. We present a literature review that identifies approaches to the barriers and motivators before demonstrating the results of qualitative analysis on transcripts of 67 in-depth interviews and 15 focus groups across six EU member and associate countries. This study identifies emerging themes regarding the decision-making levels and technological foci, assesses the degree of alignment between the existing literature and the perspectives of these respondents from different decision-making levels, and suggests how these perspectives can be translated into policy recommendations. An important finding of the study is that barriers are frequently described as being confined to lower level collective decision-making units, whereas the transition to low carbon is deemed inevitable for higher levels. Therefore, in addition to communication, a significant role in enabling energy transition is played by personal and social factors, which should be considered in policy-making.