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Gregory C. Unruh

Bio: Gregory C. Unruh is an academic researcher from Arizona State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Carbon lock-in & Sustainable development. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 33 publications receiving 4747 citations. Previous affiliations of Gregory C. Unruh include George Mason University & IE University.

Papers
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Gregory C. Unruh1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel-based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co-evolution driven by path-dependent increasing returns to scale.

2,424 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Gregory C. Unruh1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the climate policy implications of the arguments made in "Understanding carbon lock-in" (Unruh, 2000), which posited that industrial countries have become locked-into fossil fuel-based energy systems through path dependent processes driven by increasing returns to scale.

885 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A systematic review of carbon lock-in can be found in this article, where the authors characterize the types and causes of carbon-lock-in, or quantitatively assess and evaluate its policy implications.
Abstract: Existing technologies, institutions, and behavioral norms together act to constrain the rate and magnitude of carbon emissions reductions in the coming decades. The inertia of carbon emissions due to such mutually reinforcing physical, economic, and social constraints is referred to as carbon lock-in. Carbon lock-in is a special case of path dependency, which is common in the evolution of complex systems. However, carbon lock-in is particularly prone to entrenchment given the large capital costs, long infrastructure lifetimes, and interrelationships between the socioeconomic and technical systems involved. Further, the urgency of efforts to avoid dangerous climate change exacerbates the liability of even small lock-in risks. Although carbon lock-in has been recognized for years, efforts to characterize the types and causes of carbon lock-in, or to quantitatively assess and evaluate its policy implications, have been limited and scattered across a number of different disciplines. This systematic review of ...

529 citations

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TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare EKC models to structural transition models of per capita CO2 emissions and per capita GDP, and find that for the 16 countries which have undergone such a transition, the initiation of the transition correlates not with income levels but with historic events related to the oil price shocks of the 1970s and the policies that followed them.
Abstract: Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) analysis links changes in environmental quality to national economic growth. The reduced form models, however, do not provide insight into the underlying processes that generate these changes. We compare EKC models to structural transition models of per capita CO2 emissions and per capita GDP, and find that, for the 16 countries which have undergone such a transition, the initiation of the transition correlates not with income levels but with historic events related to the oil price shocks of the 1970s and the policies that followed them. In contrast to previous EKC studies of CO2 the transition away from positive emissions elasticities for these 16 countries is found to occur as a sudden, discontinuous transition rather than as a gradual change. We also demonstrate that the third order polynomial 'N' dependence of emissions on income is the result of data aggregation. We conclude that neither the 'U'- nor the 'N'-shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and income provide a reliable indication of future behaviour.

368 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors extended the arguments surrounding carbon lock-in elaborated in Unruh (Energy Policy 28 (2000) 817; 30 (2002) 317) to countries currently undergoing industrialization.

301 citations


Cited by
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TL;DR: In this paper, a typology of four transition pathways: transformation, reconfiguration, technological substitution, and de-alignment and re-alignments is presented, which differ in combinations of timing and nature of multi-level interactions.

3,926 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make four contributions to the approach by addressing some open issues in the sectoral systems of innovation (SOSI) approach, namely, explicitly incorporating the user side in the analysis, suggesting an analytical distinction between systems, actors involved in them, and the institutions which guide actor perceptions and activities.

3,221 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis as discussed by the authors proposes an inverted-U-shaped relationship between different pollutants and per capita income, i.e., environmental pressure increases up to a certain level as income goes up; after that, it decreases.

2,882 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the intellectual contours of this emerging field by conducting a review of basic conceptual frameworks, together with bibliographical analysis of 540 journal articles in the field.

2,406 citations