External publications

Policies for accelerating sustainability transitions: bridging insights from transition studies and policy studies

Salas-Gironés, Edgar / Nicholas Goedeking / Karoline S. Rogge
External Publications (2026)

in: Julius Wesche / Abe Hendriks (Hrsg.), Introduction to sustainability transitions research, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 259-282

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009437318.019
Open access

Pressing environmental and societal challenges, such as the climate crisis and social inequality, demand policy interventions to steer and accelerate sustainability transitions. This chapter highlights four key intervention areas: providing direction to transitions (directionality), fostering innovation (niche support), phasing out unsustainable practices (regime destabilisation), and coordinating transition processes (coordination). We outline their theoretical rationale in transition studies and offer interdisciplinary insights from policy research. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we present 15 concrete policy interventions to transform production and consumption systems. Evaluating these interventions with empirical findings from leading transition journals, we highlight research opportunities at the intersection of public policy and sustainability transitions. Given the resistance and contestation around transformational policies, we aim to foster interdisciplinary exchange on how to accelerate sustainability transitions.

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