Energy Transition: Opportunities and Barriers in Technology, Economics, and Policy
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 1345
Editors
Interests: energy transition; regional sustainable development; energy economics; environmental economics
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is difficult to imagine a sustainable future without a fundamental structural transformation of the global energy system. The transition from fossil-fuel dependence to low-carbon economies is accelerating, driven by the urgent need to mitigate climate change, improve environmental quality, and ensure energy security. This has contributed to the rapid deployment of renewable generation technologies and emerging energy solutions, which are reshaping industrial structures, consumer behaviours, and global economic competitiveness. On the other hand, the complexity of reshaping established energy markets and managing the trade-offs between economic growth and environmental protection has advanced research in the areas of environmental economics, policy design, and social equity, leading to the development of more effective regulatory frameworks, market mechanisms, and socio-economic assessment models.
This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to the socio-economic analysis, policy evaluation, and institutional barrier identification of the global energy transition.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Regional heterogeneity in energy transition pathways and cross-border energy cooperation.
- Economic evaluation and policy design for the synergistic control of air pollution and carbon emissions in energy systems.
- Environmental quality assessment and health co-benefits of low-carbon energy policies.
- Market adoption, economic feasibility, and business models for emerging energy technologies.
- Socio-economic impacts and policy incentives for circular economy models in the energy sector.
- Policy frameworks and subsidy reforms for accelerating the diffusion of low-carbon innovations.
- Carbon pricing mechanisms, emissions trading systems (ETSs), and energy transition.
- Green finance, climate investment funds, and risk management in renewable energy projects or energy transition.
- Digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI) and energy transition.
- Digitalization and energy markets.
- Energy justice, energy poverty, and the socio-economic distribution of transition costs.
Prof. Dr. Wanping Yang
Guest Editor
Dr. Bingyu Zhao
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- energy transition
- regional development
- artificial intelligence (AI)
- digital economy
- pollution control
- environmental quality
- carbon pricing
- green finance
- energy policy
- digitalization
- energy justice
- energy poverty
- circular economy
- energy storage
- business models
- technology adoption
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