October, 10th, 2024

At the Strategic Research Council conference in Tampere yesterday, Paula Kivimaa presented her forthcoming book " Security in sustainable energy transitions". The analysis tool she used (pictured) is very similar in its elements to the tools that the JustH2Transit researchers, led by Nina Wessberg, Pasi Rikkonen and Essi Laitinen, used to create scenarios of how the hydrogen transition in Finland might proceed.

One of Kivimaa's prompts at the end of her presentation was to explore further how sustainability transitions link to conflict and peacebuilding. No more was needed to feed the flame of peace researcher Laitinen as she presented the preliminary findings of JustH2Transit scenario work to the conference audience.

What is essential and valuable both in Kivimaa's book and in the JustH2Transit scenarios is the filling of an important information gap: the energy transition is not just a techno-economic issue that may have at most some biological effects, but a profound socio-technical change, the implications of which for human communities are something we need to be much more interested in.

Fortunately, we have the Strategic Research Council, whose task is to encourage researchers to tackle precisely these kinds of research questions, which are crucial to the development of society!

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Laitinen's presentation can be found here.