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While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland - one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major landscape shock that is having pervasive effects across socio-technical systems. Due to its recentness, sustainability scientists and other researchers have only started to investigate the implications of this crisis. The COVID-19 outbreak presents a unique opportunity to analyze in real time the effects of a protracted landscape-scale perturbation on the trajectories of sustainability transitions. In this perspective, we explore the ramifications for sustainability transition research on electricity and mobility, drawing from selected examples in Finland and Sweden. The long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to trigger more permanent changes connected to the digitalization of work and other daily activities, thus reducing mobility needs and overall fossil-energy consumption. The crisis may encourage governance systems to be better prepared for different types of shocks in the future, while it also contains a threat of increasingly populist or undemocratic political responses and increased securitization. These developments can guide research by addressing the reproduction of new practices arising from the COVID-19 outbreak to accelerate sustainability transitions, enhancing understanding of the role of governance in transitions, and bringing to attention the ethical and political implications of landscape shocks.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major landscape shock that is having pervasive effects across socio-technical systems. Due to its recentness, sustainability scientists and other researchers have only started to investigate the implications of this crisis. The COVID-19 outbreak presents a unique opportunity to analyze in real time the effects of a protracted landscape-scale perturbation on the trajectories of sustainability transitions. In this perspective, we explore the ramifications for sustainability transition research on electricity and mobility, drawing from selected examples in Finland and Sweden. The long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to trigger more permanent changes connected to the digitalization of work and other daily activities, thus reducing mobility needs and overall fossil-energy consumption. The crisis may encourage governance systems to be better prepared for different types of shocks in the future, while it also contains a threat of increasingly populist or undemocratic political responses and increased securitization. These developments can guide research by addressing the reproduction of new practices arising from the COVID-19 outbreak to accelerate sustainability transitions, enhancing understanding of the role of governance in transitions, and bringing to attention the ethical and political implications of landscape shocks. ; Funding agencies: Erasmus + Programme of the European Union (Project S4S - ScaleUp4Sustainability); Biogas Research Center (BRC); Academy of FinlandAcademy of Finland [322667]

The transition towards low-energy buildings in the United Kingdom is challenging. Several policy changes have affected the actions and agency of actors. Drawing on the sustainability transitions literature, we analyse the development of the low-energy homes niche, focusing on the dynamics between intermediary organisations and policy development for low-energy homes. Based on rich interview and secondary data, we note how the existence and activities of transition intermediaries are enabled or curtailed by policy changes. We identify niche development phases along with the position and activities of intermediary organisations. In the predevelopment phase, non-state transition intermediaries have formed when government policy has been weak or market-based. During take-off, targeted policy initiatives have created protective spaces and stimulated the emergence of new intermediaries aiming to consolidate the niche. State-affiliated intermediaries have been established as part of active energy efficiency policy, but later ceased to exist or became privatised. Existing organisations have adopted intermediary functions to advance low-energy homes in response to policy. Furthermore, intermediaries have on occasion influenced policy development, often through cooperation among an ecology of intermediaries. In conclusion, we raise questions regarding intermediaries in the changing governance context.

As buildings throughout their lifecycle account for circa 40% of total energy use in Europe, reducing energy use of the building stock is a key task. This task is, however, complicated by a range of factors, including slow renewal and renovation rates of buildings, multiple non- coordinated actors, conservative building practices, and limited competence to innovate. Drawing from academic literature published during 2005-2015, this article carries out a systematic review of case studies on low energy innovations in the European residential building sector, analysing their drivers. Specific attention is paid to intermediary actors in facilitating innovation processes and creating new opportunities. The study finds that qualitative case study literature on low energy building innovation has been limited, particularly regarding the existing building stock. Environmental concerns, EU, national and local policies have been the key drivers; financial, knowledge and social sustainability and equity drivers have been of modest importance; while design, health and comfort, and market drivers have played a minor role. Intermediary organisations and individuals have been important through five processes: (1) facilitating individual building projects, (2) creating niche markets, (3) implementing new practices in social housing stock, (4) supporting new business model creation, and (5) facilitating building use post construction. The intermediaries have included both public and private actors, while local authority agents have acted as intermediaries in several cases.

While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland – one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.

Highlights • Focus on policy experimentation and institutional change in transitions. • Two types of policy experiments identified in relation to innovation policy. • An in-depth case study of mobility as a service (MaaS) in Finland is presented. • Institutional change enables conducive context for policy experimentation. • Learning from policy experimentation can push transformative institutional change. ; While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland – one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.

Sustainable Development Goals aim for a better future, but gains are threatened by conflict and governance failures, exacerbated by climate change. While research on energy security is well-established, conceptual-analytical research on sustainability transitions has paid little attention to security threats as factors influencing transitions or security policy as part of policy mixes. This paper combines policy coherence and integration analysis of energy and security strategy documents with sustainability transitions' research, considering how landscape pressures and energy niches are presented in documents pertaining to Estonia, Finland and Scotland during 2006–2020. The findings show that security and energy policies present a functional overlap. Yet, policy integration and coherence are insufficiently addressed, conflicts created by coexisting low-carbon and hydrocarbon-based security considerations. An increasingly multifaceted landscape creates a complicated policy environment where pursuing policy coherence becomes harder. Despite the accelerating energy transition, the security implications of energy niches have received too little attention. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Highlights • Combining policy coherence and integration with sustainability transitions. • Policy document analysis explored the interplay of energy and security policies. • Security and defence at times integrated in energy policy, particularly in Estonia. • Lack of coherence between low-carbon energy transition and national security policy. • Security inferences of growing energy niches little covered in strategy documents. ; Sustainable Development Goals aim for a better future, but gains are threatened by conflict and governance failures, exacerbated by climate change. While research on energy security is well-established, conceptual-analytical research on sustainability transitions has paid little attention to security threats as factors influencing transitions or security policy as part of policy mixes. This paper combines policy coherence and integration analysis of energy and security strategy documents with sustainability transitions' research, considering how landscape pressures and energy niches are presented in documents pertaining to Estonia, Finland and Scotland during 2006–2020. The findings show that security and energy policies present a functional overlap. Yet, policy integration and coherence are insufficiently addressed, conflicts created by coexisting low-carbon and hydrocarbon-based security considerations. An increasingly multifaceted landscape creates a complicated policy environment where pursuing policy coherence becomes harder. Despite the accelerating energy transition, the security implications of energy niches have received too little attention.

Highlights • Creating an analytical framework of intermediating transitions in the policy cycle. • Analyses intermediation in 2 building energy efficiency policy processes in Finland. • Advocating visions and influencing policy options part of intermediating to policy. • Policy translation and training as vital intermediation functions in implementation. • Intermediation deterring policy change contains inaction, disinterest or deceit. ; The roles of intermediaries in sustainability transitions are increasingly recognised. How intermediaries advance transitions vis-a-vis public policy has, however, received little attention. Thus, we create an analytical framework of intermediating policy processes, drawing from transition and policy cycle literatures. We apply this to investigate two policy processes pertaining to Finland's building energy efficiency. The findings show how the central role of the Ministry of the Environment and high political attention have reduced the need for intermediation by external organisations in agenda setting and policy formulation. However, intermediaries external to the Ministry have been vital in facilitating policy implementation. The cases show that facilitating training as an intermediary activity can be undertaken by different organisations, such as a trade union, a government agency or an education committee. Based on our analysis, we argue that, when political attention on transitions is low, the need for intermediary action is likely to be higher.

The roles of intermediaries in sustainability transitions are increasingly recognised. How intermediaries advance transitions vis-a-vis public policy has, however, received little attention. Thus, we create an analytical framework of intermediating policy processes, drawing from transition and policy cycle literatures. We apply this to investigate two policy processes pertaining to Finland's building energy efficiency. The findings show how the central role of the Ministry of the Environment and high political attention have reduced the need for intermediation by external organisations in agenda setting and policy formulation. However, intermediaries external to the Ministry have been vital in facilitating policy implementation. The cases show that facilitating training as an intermediary activity can be undertaken by different organisations, such as a trade union, a government agency or an education committee. Based on our analysis, we argue that, when political attention on transitions is low, the need for intermediary action is likely to be higher.

Institutional entrepreneurship research has described and conceptualized dramatic cases of successful institutional change. We know less about whether it can help people trying to change institutions, for example, struggling to change the energy system. Do concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature offer sustainable energy practitioners insights on the political aspects of their work? And vice-versa: do practitioners have useful insights on the potential and limits of agency in institutional change? The present study contributes to these questions through collaborative inquiry together with government-affiliated organizations with a mission to promote sustainable energy. The results suggest that concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature do serve to make practitioners' implicit competencies explicit and hence a legitimate subject for organizational development and joint learning about the political aspects of energy systems change. We conclude that institutional entrepreneurship appears to require a form of organizing that combines environmental scanning, grand strategy and everyday tactical moves on the ground. ; Peer reviewed

Institutional entrepreneurship research has described and conceptualized dramatic cases of successful institutional change. We know less about whether it can help people trying to change institutions, for example, struggling to change the energy system. Do concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature offer sustainable energy practitioners insights on the political aspects of their work? And vice-versa: do practitioners have useful insights on the potential and limits of agency in institutional change? The present study contributes to these questions through collaborative inquiry together with government-affiliated organizations with a mission to promote sustainable energy. The results suggest that concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature do serve to make practitioners' implicit competencies explicit and hence a legitimate subject for organizational development and joint learning about the political aspects of energy systems change. We conclude that institutional entrepreneurship appears to require a form of organizing that combines environmental scanning, grand strategy and everyday tactical moves on the ground.

Any new policy goals pertaining to sustainable energy transitions and associated policy instruments to help foster such change will not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they will become embedded in pre-existing policy contexts with legacies of goals and instruments already in place. It is this messy reality that ultimately influences policy outcomes and it is therefore increasingly important to explicitly study 'real-world' policy mixes. This chapter draws on the emerging literature on policy mixes for energy transitions and points out that there has been limited attention specifically to energy efficiency policy mixes. The aim of this chapter is to summarise some of the empirical research on energy efficiency policy mixes conducted as part of CIED in order to draw out overall academic insights and avenues for further research. We also provide policy reflections on design principles for policy mixes for sustainable energy transitions in which energy efficiency plays a key role.

A transition to net-zero carbon energy systems, imperative to combat climate change, is unfolding around the world. Other socio-technical systems also face the need to transition to become more environmentally and socially sustainable. We argue that such transitions will have both positive and negative security implications on numerous issues which deserve attention but have been little addressed in transition studies. We take a socio-technical lens and propose that these security implications can be ex-ante analysed via three elements of socio-technical systems: technology, actors, and institutions. We provide an illustration of such analysis in the energy transition context and use this to create a categorisation framework for expectations analysis. Regarding the technology dimension, expectations concerning, e.g., resource and technology dependencies, risk for technical system disruptions, and effects on interconnected systems can be analysed as relevant security issues. For the actor dimension, issues such as geopolitical uncertainties, regional (in)stability, internal tensions, and diffusion of power are identified. For institutions, e.g., influence on democratic institutions, peace building and structural violence can be assessed. We argue there is a need for improved and forward-looking policy coordination across domains and for academic studies that utilise foresight approaches to assess different security expectations more concretely.