Framing the sustainable energy challenge and implications for solutions

Sustainable consumption policies often rely on ecological
modernisation rationality, where the focus is usually on making current
consumption patterns more sustainable in such a way that status
quo (ideas about the quality of life and growth) is not challenged. As
a result, sustainable energy policies tend to black box the demand side,
often resulting in abstracting efficiency strategies from the social
organisation within which the strategies and resulting solutions unfold.
Rebound effects and other unintended consequences often happen as a
result of this type of efficiency strategies. This chapter introduces alternative
problem framings that may offer a way to mitigate rebound effects
by addressing and challenging a wider set of socio-material, cultural and
institutional aspects of energy demand.