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The concept of energy security is multifaceted, and can cover a number of seemingly distinct energy- and climate-related risks. Now, research shows that public opinion about energy security reflects the geographic variation in these risks, such that cross-country differences in public concern are explained by national energy context and indicators.

Poor and minority communities already bear the brunt of natural catastrophes. Rebuilding efforts must not increase disparities, warns Benjamin K. Sovacool.

A broader pool of expertise is needed to understand how human behaviour affects energy demand and the uptake of technologies, says Benjamin K. Sovacool.

Industrial decarbonization poses both risks and benefits for communities. We show how community-based research can move pervasive yet nebulous calls for community engagement to processes that emphasize just and equitable governance.

Sociotechnical visions of the future can motivate researchers to create a better world, but as social scientist Benjamin K. Sovacool argues, they can also blind the scientific community to potential downsides.

Most cities lack comprehensive health adaptation strategies in climate planning, with no global plans achieving fully integrated holistic approaches. City climate adaptation plans show the awareness of health impacts, but only 11% have strong health strategies.

Initiatives to adapt to the effects of climate change are growing in number but may fail to achieve the desired outcomes unless critical competing interests are taken into account during the planning process.

This Perspective introduces a special Collection titled Energy, Climate and Society—jointly produced by Nature Energy and Nature Climate Change—that focuseson the social science insights into the linked problems of energy sustainability and climate change.

Nuclear and renewable energy are considered two of the most important technologies towards decarbonization though it is not clear how their adoption relates to national emission reductions. Sovacool et al. look at data from 123 countries to examine emission reductions associated with nuclear- or renewable energy-focused strategies.

This study identifies 95 interrelated barriers to building decarbonization, showing that social, political, and behavioral factors, alongside technical ones, inhibit the adoption of low carbon solutions across the sector.

Differences in the approach to community acceptance of energy technologies can muddy visions of energy futures. Acknowledgement of the tensions around justice perspectives and the degree of desired change can improve scholarship and policy dialogue.

Concerns about energy and transport poverty are critical to the net-zero transition but are growing in the wake of recent global events. This study presents findings from focus groups with the public and expert interviews in the United Kingdom on support for different policy options to address these challenges.

The effects of climate change on vulnerable communities raise ethical concerns about who should help them cope and how. Research suggests that fair and beneficial solutions are possible, but they always come with risks.

This article establishes a global baseline of public perceptions of climate-intervention technologies. Publics across the global South are more favorable and supportive but concerned about impacts on mitigation and unequal burdens of risks on poor countries.

City governments are moving to integrate justice and equity concerns into climate action. Diezmartínez et al. demonstrate that contestations about the politics of climate justice were central during the first 2 years of implementation for a Boston building decarbonization policy, highlighting important challenges in translating climate justice into practice. Nature Cities is proud that this robust work is our first fully qualitative methods study.

As coal is phased out, this will have an effect on mining towns. Here the authors find that in these locations ramping up energy transition metals will be more disruptive to demographic systems than ramping down coal.

Meaningful public engagement is key to sustainable governance of carbon removal and solar radiation modification. A study across 22 countries emphasizes tailored approaches sensitive to local contexts, technological nuances, power dynamics and trust.

Global public expectations for carbon removal governance are: engagement beyond acceptance research; regulating industry beyond incentivizing innovation; systemic coordination; and prioritizing underlying and interrelated causes of unsustainability.

Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) provides an early example of how contestations around climate justice are already shaping cities’ implementation of climate action on the ground. As a landmark in equitable implementation efforts, BERDO highlights important challenges in putting climate justice into practice, including working within a program’s scope and scale constraints, translating justice goals into bureaucratic processes, and managing the potential weaponization of justice claims.

Public support for solar geoengineering and carbon dioxide removal methods decreases with age, and gender has little effect overall, according to an analysis combining the survey of 30 844 participants from 30 countries and a statistical approach.

Car dealership experiences may influence EV purchase decisions of the majority of consumers who do not have pre-existing knowledge of EVs. This study shows that car dealerships present barriers to EV adoption because of dealer sales strategies that reflect government and industry conditions.

Coal and carbon-intensive regions have lagged behind in socioeconomic development, long before any transition-related structural changes were foreseeable. Acknowledging and tackling the compounding effects of old legacy and new transition injustices is vital for realizing a truly just energy transition.

When making decisions about energy, consumers and policymakers typically overlook moral issues, which can have profound societal consequences. This Perspective explores how ideas from justice and ethics can provide a framework to reconsider energy problems and better inform decision-making processes.

Phasing out coal requires expanding the notion of a ‘just transition’ and a roadmap that specifies the sequence of coal plant retirement, the appropriate policy instruments as well as ways to include key stakeholders in the process.

Low-carbon innovations in technology and behaviour are increasingly prevalent, but they are not always equitable. This Review examines how such innovations can introduce and perpetrate inequalities, and discusses ways to ensure that a low-carbon future is both sustainable and equitable.

Culture influences low-carbon energy transitions and as a result should be considered in the design of relevant policies. Focusing on a selection of low-carbon technologies and behavioural practices, this Review highlights the role of culture with respect to different dimensions of sustainability.

In Europe, social innovation in energy is largely driven by governance in a national context, and receives strong acceptance from citizens, concludes a mixed methods analysis of surveys, experiments and expert elicitation.

Small-scale renewable energy systems and smart technologies are enabling energy consumers to become producers and service providers as well. This Perspective explores this ‘prosumption’ phenomenon, highlighting three promising prosumer market models and the challenges for future implementation.

People in the Global South have stronger hope but broader concerns about solar geoengineering than in the Global North; both regions support multilateral coordination and public engagement but are skeptical about effectiveness, according to an analysis of survey data and focus groups in 22 countries.