Pathways to Clean Energy: Technologies, Policies, and Impacts
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2026 | Viewed by 70
Special Issue Editors
Interests: energy economics; environmental management; innovation and entrepreneurship management; corporate governance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The transition to clean energy serves as a fundamental pillar for achieving global sustainability objectives, addressing climate change, and securing energy security and stability. Currently, the energy sector faces a decisive turning point. According to International Energy Agency (IEA) projections, reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 necessitates a more than threefold increase in annual global clean energy investments, reaching approximately USD 4 trillion by 2030. This unprecedented economic transformation introduces both complex challenges and significant opportunities that warrant rigorous economic analysis.
Technological advancements are dramatically reshaping energy systems, with substantial cost reductions in renewable energy, energy storage, and other clean technologies fundamentally altering traditional economic calculations. Concurrently, policy instruments such as carbon pricing and subsidy schemes demonstrate varying levels of effectiveness across different institutional environments. Furthermore, these transitions generate crucial considerations regarding equity, employment, and regional development.
This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of clean energy pathways by examining the interplay between technological innovation, policy frameworks, and societal impacts. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, this Special Issue aims to move beyond isolated perspectives and contribute to more holistic frameworks for analysing and accelerating clean energy transitions.
In this Special Issue, original research articles, case studies and review papers are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Economic approaches for achieving energy transition.
- Technological innovation driving energy transition.
- Impacts of geopolitical risks and trade dynamics on energy transition.
- Integrated assessment model of climate–economy–energy systems.
- Affordable clean energy transitions in developing countries.
- Behaviour of consumers and enterprises during energy transition.
- Key features, current progress, future challenges, and policy insights for the energy transition of emerging economies.
- Energy resilience and security in the context of energy transition pathways.
- Frameworks and models for understanding and assessing just energy transitions.
- Policy simulation related to energy transition.
- Risk identification for energy transition pathways.
- Assessing the equity and fairness of energy transition policies.
- Socio-economic impacts of energy transitions.
- Health impacts of energy transition.
- Environmental impacts of energy transition.
Dr. Yanchao Feng
Dr. Shilei Hu
Guest Editors
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability 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 2400 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
- clean energy
- energy transition
- energy resilience and security
- technological innovation
- policy simulation
- socio-economic impacts
- risk identification
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