Moderator: Max Wei, LBNL

Climate change mitigation strategies are primarily centered around technological innovations for GHG emissions reductions and often ignore the underlying issue of affluent consumption or unsustainable levels of energy demand. There is an urgent need for a sufficiency-oriented approach to climate action that involves an absolute reduction in energy consumption through human behavioral interventions and their interaction with technology while being consistent with equity, well-being, and environmental limits. This session will discuss energy sufficiency as a strategy for achieving carbon neutrality and its co-benefits such as equity, justice, and human well-being. The first talk will introduce the concept of sufficiency in the context of the broader energy transition and how sufficiency complements the other widely accepted building decarbonization approaches such as efficiency and renewable energy. The second presentation will focus on the potential of human factors – culture and social norms in enabling sufficiency-oriented energy transition and discuss the choice of contextual behavior-based strategies. The third presentation will discuss the approaches to operationalize sufficiency through behavior change programs in different sectors such as buildings, transportation, and industry. The panel will comprise three speakers and a Chair.

Presentation 1: Sufficiency as a Strategy for Building Decarbonization
Speaker 1: Jeetika Malik, LBNL

Presentation 2: The Role of Culture and Social Norms for a Sufficiency-Oriented Energy Transition
Speaker 2: Susan Mazur-Stommen, INDICIA Consulting

Presentation 3: Energy Sufficiency-Related Programs in Buildings, Transportation, and Industry
Speaker 3: Reuven Sussman, ACEEE

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