Just Transition for a Sustainable Future

The International Conference on Energy and Environment has been organized since 2013. Since the first edition we aimed to bring a multidisciplinary vision to the topics of energy and environment, with a special focus on engineering and economic studies. Recognizing the complexity of these topics, the scope of the conference has been enlarged and works presented over the years include a variety of approaches and cases that bring different visions to the challenges of addressing both environmental and social issues simultaneously while achieving long-term sustainability goals. This provided a fertile field for research and the ICEE encouraged meaningful discussions, resulted in several special issues since the first edition and counted with the support of ENVI since 2015.

The different editions of conference show some important trends over a large spectrum of themes including research on sustainable development and economic growth, energy polices, clean energy and mobility technologies, waste management and social well-being and sustainability evaluation and pathways (Soares et al., 2018 and Ferreira et al., 2016). The evolving scope of ICEE has been showing the growing significance of the concept of “just transition” in the context of environmental and social considerations. A shift to a more sustainable economy is necessary for mitigating the impacts of climate change and reducing environmental degradation but also focusing on the well-being of communities and on the need to ensure inclusive and democratic approach.

Papers in this Special Issue (SI) derive from the 6th edition of the International Conference on Energy and Environment: Bringing together Economics and Engineering, University of Minho, in Guimarães, Portugal on the 6 and 7 of June 2024, from which a selection of papers will be published. The topics of interest derive directly from the topics included in the scope of the conference. Invited papers aim to bring an international vision towards a low-carbon, sustainable future resulting in the special issue entitled “Just Transition for a Sustainable Future”. Both theoretical and empirical contributions are welcome, and a multidisciplinary perspective is expected to be reached with these papers.

Some examples of research topics in the scope of the SI are as follows, but not limited to:

• Circular Economy

• Climate change

• Digital transition

• Economic analysis

• Energy communities

• Energy economics

• Energy efficiency

• Energy management

• Energy policy

• Energy production and storage

• Impact assessment

• Indicators for sustainability

• Just transition

• Life Cycle Analysis

• Modelling and planning

• Natural resources and materials

• Renewable energies

• Social aspects for energy and environment

• Sustainable cities

• Sustainable development

• Water management