European societies are faced with important decisions to be made on the way they will produce and consume energy in the near future. Meeting the objectives of the EU Energy Union, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change poses substantial challenges to policymakers, who need to decide on appropriate policies and measures to fulfil these commitments. How do priorities of energy policy interact? What are the synergies and the trade-offs between different policy objectives? How do long-term decarbonization targets affect policy choices for the short and medium term? Is the transition to circular economies compatible with the demand for highly energy-productive societies? Can the digitalization trend become a catalyst or a barrier for low-energy futures? Are European cities in a position to enable a secure, competitive and low-emission energy supply? What is the role of technological, economic, fiscal and behavioural considerations for securing a sustainable energy transition for Europe? Multidisciplinary approaches to such questions are particularly welcome to this Special Issue. We invite theoretical and empirical contributions offering a European or broader international perspective. Papers with a national or sub-national focus will be considered as long as they demonstrate their relevance in the European policy landscape.
Keywords: behavioral energy economics; climate policy; energy regulation; energy finance; integrated assessments; market design; security of energy supply; sustainable transport; taxation and other fiscal instruments; urban policy.