The role of energy sufficiency in the energy transition and society - Sub-project: Impact chains of sufficiency

Efficiency only? An analysis of avoid, shift and improve strategies in EU member states’ long-term mitigation policy

January 2026

Despite ambitious EU targets, national emission trajectories reported by member states continue to fall short of achieving the necessary reductions. This implementation gap raises the question of what mitigation strategies and instruments member states rely on to meet internationally binding climate

Doctoral Thesis, Technische Universität Berlin

Energy sufficiency potentials and policy instruments

January 2026

Sufficiency aims to achieve a state in which overconsumption and overproduction are reduced to ensure that ecological limits are not exceeded, while underconsumption is also reduced to provide an adequate social foundation for everyone. Due to its potential to enable the achievement of several ecolo

Preprint

Energy and GHG saving potentials of sufficiency measures - a synthesis for Germany

December 2025

The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasises the potential of demand-side measures, such as sufficiency, for mitigating climate change. Although quantified potentials of various sufficiency measures exist, policy advisors and energy modellers critici

Crisis-proof, socially and environmentally compatible - Impulses for the development of a sufficiency strategy for Germany

December 2025

In this paper we outline key problematic trends and indicators for the building and transport sector in Germany and discuss potential sufficiency-oriented futures. We provide insights into potential policy instruments and conclude with thoughts on the implementation of an integrated sufficiency stra

Beyond technology and energy supply. Conceptualising a toolbox for including sufficiency measures in scenario projections

December 2025

This work gives an overview on findings from a five-years’ sufficiency research project regarding the tools in the box for modelling sufficiency in the German energy system context. We conceptualize sufficiency quantification by distinguishing between demand-side and supply modelling, external qua

In: Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 120

Embracing sufficiency to accelerate the energy transition

February 2025

In a rapidly warming world, the transition to renewable energy faces challenges on many fronts. Sufficiency measures, which focus on reducing overall energy demand, hold great potential to accelerate the energy transition and create truly sustainable societies, yet remain underexplored in policy cir

Feasibility of sufficiency policy instruments. An assessment using impact chains for the German mobility sector

January 2025

The transport sector is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets. Rapid decarbonization of transport requires fuel switching and energy savings through modal shift and demand reduction – which are the aims of transport-sufficiency policy. We analyze passenger transport-policy instr

Reducing demand: a quantitative analysis of energy service demand indicators in sufficiency-oriented scenarios

December 2024

A reduction of energy service demand in all sectors is required to reach ambitious climate and other sustainability goals. A growing number of energy and climate scenarios does include detailed assumptions and quantified parameters for the reduction of energy service demand. However, the indicators

The key role of sufficiency for low demand-based carbon neutrality and energy security across Europe

October 2024

A detailed assessment of a low energy demand, 1.5 ∘C compatible pathway is provided for Europe from a bottom-up, country scale modelling perspective. The level of detail enables a clear representation of the potential of sufficiency measures. Results show that by 2050, 50% final energy demand re

Using impact chains for a feasibility assessment of sufficiency policies in the mobility sector

June 2024

Energy savings through modal shift and demand reduction (avoid) are key to decarbonising the transport sector. This is the aim of transport sufficiency policies. Some of them are already implemented and serve as best practice examples, and there are many planned and proposed policies, e.g., in the N

In: Maike Gossen/ Laura Niessen (Eds.), Sufficiency in Business (325-340)

Policy-Making as a Crucial Element for Sufficiency on the Business Level. Discussing the Role of Policies to Push Sufficiency beyond Pioneers

May 2024

Research into sufficiency at business level often focuses on pioneers and a bottom-up approach to transformation. However, business activities are shaped and limited by political framework conditions. We analyze the interdependent relationships between business and policy making, arguing for greater

Commentary

High with low: Harnessing the power of demand-side solutions for high wellbeing with low energy and material demand

January 2024

The authors are all devoted energy system and sustainability transformation scholars, who collaborate regularly and actively at global and local levels to advance the knowledge space of demand-side solutions and policies. They are members of a growing bottom-up initiative, the Energy Demand Changes

Impact chains of energy sufficiency policies: A proposal for visualization and possibilities for integration into energy modeling

July 2022

Impact chains are used in many different fields of research to depict the various impacts of an activity and to visualize the system in which this activity is embedded. Research has not yet conceptualized impact chains specifically for energy sufficiency policies. We develop such a concept based on

Building a database for energy sufficiency policies

July 2022

Sufficiency measures are potentially decisive for the decarbonisation of energy systems but rarely considered in energy policy and modelling. Just as efficiency and renewable energies, the diffusion of demand-side solutions to climate change also relies on policy-making. Our extensive literature rev

eceee 2021 Summer Study proceedings - Panel: 6. Transport and mobility

Sufficiency in transport policy – an analysis of EU countries’ national energy and climate plans and long-term strategies

October 2021

On the pathway to climate neutrality, EU member states are obliged to submit national energy and climate plans (NECPs) with planned policies and measures for decarbonization until 2030 and long-term strategies (LTSs) for further decarbonization until 2050. We analysed the 27 NECPs and 15 LTSs submit

Enough? The role of sufficiency in European energy and climate plans

October 2021

Energy sufficiency is one of the three energy sustainability strategies, next to energy efficiency and renewable energies. We analyse to what extent European governments follow this strategy, by conducting a systematic document analysis of all available European National Energy and Climate Plans (NE