To achieve the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 • C compared to pre-industrial levels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that it will be necessary to double the share of low-emissions energy technologies across the world between 2020 and 2050 (International Energy Agency, 2021). Changing the share requires both an immense reduction in carbon-intensive energy resources and a similarly immense increase in low-and no-carbon resources. These requirements-or,

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... phrased, this energy transition-will obviously have significant implications for technology development and deployment, but it will also have implications for social, cultural, and human development. The need for research into these societal developments is of the utmost importance. The energy transition and its related scholarship hinge on four key elements: (1) the energy transition scholarship must include human dimensions; (2) notions of a just transition must be inclusive of other vulnerable and traditionally disadvantaged populations; (3) institutions, and the proliferation thereof, will be important to the evolution of the energy transition; and (4) it will be essential to continue to develop metrics and methodological approaches that account for the human-and equity-dimensions of energy systems. Energy transition scholarship must include human dimensions Discussions about and planning for the energy transition tend to focus most intensively on technological feasibility, often at the exclusion of social, cultural, political, and behavioral factors. Similarly, in the carbon mitigation scholarship, studies most often focus on either technological feasibility and portfolio development, or on economic efficiency-again, at the neglect of actual human experiences. There are countless topics related to society and the energy transition that are primed for exploration, but here I offer just two as examples. As a first example, and one that is most often discussed in the evolving just transitions literature, is the topic of legacy fossil fuel communities that will lose their employment opportunities, economic livelihood, and tax base for social and public services as a result of a decline in the demand for fossil fuels. According to the announced pledges that countries have made as part of the Paris Agreement, the IEA predicts a loss of 2 million coal jobs across the world, the majority of which are in the Asia Pacific and Eurasia, and a loss of 0.5 million oil and gas jobs Frontiers in Sustainable Energy Policy frontiersin.org Carley . /fsuep. .