In the next three decades, countries across the globe will have to formulate and implement political, economic and technical strategies to transition to zero carbon. The decarbonisation of heating and cooling will require the co-evolution and co-constitution of socio-economic-political and physical-engineering realities. This Special Issue provides a forum in which to address and explore the scale and scope of this challenge. We therefore welcome high-quality contributions from a range of disciplines. This Special Issue will address the following issues, among others: Interactions between supply and demand; Exploring alternative energy system architectures; Scope and role of cross-vector integration in Heating and Cooling; The role of renewables, hydrogen and storage;Governance and regulation of heating and cooling systems; Strategies for deployment and supply chain development; Applications of digitalisation; Role of embedded energy generation;  Investment, innovation and incentives in heating/cooling technologies;Capacity markets and dynamic pricing; Role of research and innovation policy.
Keywords: heat decarbonisation; cooling decarbonisation; socio-technical systems; heating and cooling technologies; storage technologies and integration; cross-vector integration; energy system architecture; markets and regulation; policy and governance; research and innovation policy.