Conclusion to the Handbook of Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions

There is a wide spectrum of approaches and applications, with various challenges and levels of success, when looking at Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions. However, illustrating and illuminating these concepts and efforts is a valuable endeavor, if only to benchmark the practices central to climate change and net zero functions in various philosophical, technological, economic, and political spheres. Throughout the handbook, three areas of general concern have constantly reemerged. Thus, the tentativeness and vulnerability of contemporary knowledge, the challenges of appropriate actions to match the scale of problems, and a willingness and active engagement from various actors deploying Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions. Yet, to provide relevant solutions that match the scale and urgency of Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions, the challenges of the outmoded politics of the environment and climate change, and politics of gesture where issues of greenwashing and performative policies can flourish, must be addressed effectively. Moreover, it is hoped that more evidence-driven and systematic interrogations, as to the appropriateness of the works in such a handbook, will take center stage, supported by serious intellectual, political, and moral engagement.