Carbon Lock-in Research
It began with a Climate Policy Paradox...
As a graduate student, I confronted a paradox.
On the one hand, climate change was a clear and growing threat.
On the other, cost-effective energy solutions already existed.
If such solutions were available, why weren’t they diffusing?
And why was policy not more effective?
This was the climate policy paradox.
The answer, it turned out, was carbon lock-in.
Energy PolicyÂ
Carbon lock-in was first introduced through a series of articles in Energy Policy, one of the leading journals shaping global thinking on the energy transition.
A top-tier, Q1 journal with an impact factor above 9 and an h-index over 290, it is a central outlet for influential policy research.
Understanding carbon lock-inÂ
Energy Policy
Volume 28, Issue 12, 1 October 2000,
Introduced the concept of carbon lock-in; it went on to become the most cited article ever published in Energy Policy.
Escaping Carbon Lock-in
Energy Policy
Volume 30, Issue 4, March 2002
Identified niche strategies for breaking lock-in and highlighted the potential need for exogenous shocks to enable transition.
Globalizing Carbon Lock-in
Energy Policy
Volume 34, Issue 10, July 2006
Argued that technological leapfrogging alone is insufficient to overcome the mimetic and institutional forces reinforcing carbon lock-in.
From Concept to Canon
Â
What began as a paradox has become a foundational framework, with thousands of citations reflecting its influence on research, policy, and the global energy transition.
Applications of Carbon Lock-In
Carbon lock-in has been used to explain why renewable energy adoption stalls, redefine stranded asset risk, and guide policies that unlock entrenched fossil-fuel systems.
These applications span energy systems, financial risk, and policy design.
The Real Stranded Assets of Carbon Lock-In
One Earth, 1, 399-401, December 2019
Selected as part of the journal’s inaugural volume, highlighting its relevance to foundational debates in energy and climate research.
Overcoming the lock-out of renewable energy technologies in Spain: The cases of wind and solar electricity
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Fall 2007 (with Pablo Del RĂo)
Explains why wind and solar struggled to scale despite favorable conditions, revealing systemic barriers to transition.
Prospective Voluntary Agreements for Escaping Techno-Institutional Lock-in,
Ecological Economics 57, 2006 (with Totti Könnölä).
Explores policy mechanisms designed to help industries break out of entrenched technological and institutional constraints.
A New Generation of Carbon Lock-In Scholarship
Two decades on, carbon lock-in has become a foundational concept, with researchers extending the theory into new fields, domains, and disciplines. My recent work has been through invitation to support and collaborate with leading scholars shaping this next generation of the field.
Carbon Lock-In: Types,
Causes, and Policy Implications
Annual Review of Environment and Resources (2016)
Commissioned as part of the journal’s invitation-only review series, this article synthesizes two decades of research, establishing carbon lock-in as a foundational framework and outlining its key mechanisms and policy implications.
Rethinking path dependence and lock-ins in regions, economy and society
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society (2026)
This special issue brings together leading scholars to extend carbon lock-in and path dependence into new spatial, regional, and socio-economic domains.
