TIPPING⁺ Newsletter: Issue 2

The shocking return of the war in Europe and the desperate attempts to phase out Russian oil, gas and carbon imports - that are financing this war - is a dramatic wake-up call to accelerate the decarbonization of our economy and support the Ukrainian people. TIPPING⁺ project is assuming its responsibility by hosting two Ukrainian researchers from Sumy State and Taras Shevchenko Universities. The Institute for Structural Research (IBS) as a member of the TIPPING⁺  consortium undertook this initiative and will host the two Ukrainian researchers. We are also extending our analytic lens to take into account the impacts of this major crisis into the regional energy transition trajectories.

After two years of work, TIPPING⁺ project is now finalizing the initial research phase based on a holistic and participatory analysis of the Social-Ecological Tipping Points in +20 regional case studies. Initial assessments are already being disseminated in the scientific community through the publication of papers and reports. We are now entering the second and final phase of the project that will build and share with stakeholders and policy-makers key learnings and recommendations to accelerate the energy transition at regional, national and global level.

During the second year of the project, TIPPING⁺ researchers have produced several reports and papers from the project outcomes. Among others, the following articles have been published.

Sokołowski, J., Frankowski, J., Mazurkiewicz, J., Lewandowski, P., 2022. Hard coal phase-out and the labour market transition pathways: The case of Poland. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Vol. 43, Pages 80-98 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2022.03.003 

Gupta, J., Liverman, D., Bai, X., Gordon, C., Hurlbert, M., Inoue, C.Y.A.., Jacobson, L., Kanie, N., Lenton, T.M., Obura, D., Otto, I.M.., Okereke, C., Pereira, L., Prodani, K., Rammelt, C., J.Scholtens, J., Tàbara, J.D., Verburg, P.H, Ciobanua, D., 2021. Reconciling safe planetary targets and planetary justice: Why should social scientists engage with planetary targets?. Earth System Governance, Vol.10, Page 00122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2021.100122 

Tàbara J.D., Lieu J., Zaman R., Ismail C., Takama T. 2021. On the discovery and enactment of positive Social-Ecological Tipping Points. Insights from energy systems interventions in Bangladesh and Indonesia. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01050-6 

The full TIPPING+ papers and publications are available here 

The second in-person meeting of the TIPPING+ project was completed successfully in Athens, Greece, from the 21st to the 23rd of June 2022 with the participation of more than 30 partners from all over the world. During the three-day meeting, interdisciplinary discussions across the TIPPING+ work packages and case studies were facilitated.

Through the presentations of TIPPING+ case studies posters, commonalities and differences were assessed based on the comparison of the main narrative components (mainstream, on-stream and off-stream narratives) of each case study. Thus, collaboration between the partners was promoted to elaborate collectively an overarching integration framework of social change supported by empirical evidence and field studies results.

Key learnings gathered so far were analysed through interactive and creative sessions and fed in a common reflection on how to engage with stakeholders and policy-makers to ensure dissemination and implementation of the project’s results.

Monthly Open Communication Space (MOCS) are organized with invited researchers and practitioners to promote an in-depth discussion on different issues related to the Energy transition:

• Marlou Schrover on Migration and economic dynamics

• Manjana Milkoreit on Social Tipping Points

• Kasia Iwinska on Gender and Energy Transition

• Mark S. McCaffrey on Fractals, Education and Tipping Points

• Marco Grasso on Oil and Gas industry and Climate Change

• Andrew K. Ringsmuth on Crossscale cooperation for a sustainable use of a common-pool resource

Global Tipping Points Conference, From Climate crisis to positive transformation, 12-14 September 2022, University of Exeter, UK

European Annual Research Conference 2022, How to turn green in the European way, 20-21 September 2022, Sevilla (Spain)

• December 2022:    5th Integration Workshop and Case study Key findings

• March 2023:           Policy briefs and recommendations

• April 2023:              Regional Strategies Booklet

• Mid 2023:               Final Conference

We have partnered with 3 other EU-funded projects to share learnings and exchange experiences on the energy transition in CCIRs.

Send us an email for any questions or express interest in the TIPPING⁺ research