• DOI:10.1146/ANNUREV-ENVIRON-110615-085934
• Corpus ID: 3714870

Carbon Lock-In: Types, Causes, and Policy Implications

@article{Seto2016CarbonLT,
  title={Carbon Lock-In: Types, Causes, and Policy Implications},
  author={Karen C. Seto and Steven J. Davis and Ronald B. Mitchell and Eleanor C. Stokes and Gregory C. Unruh and Diana {\"u}rge-Vorsatz},
  journal={Annual Review of Environment and Resources},
  year={2016},
  volume={41},
  pages={425-452}
}

• K. Seto, S. Davis, +3 authors D. ürge-Vorsatz
• Published 20 October 2016
• Economics
• Annual Review of Environment and Resources

Existing technologies, institutions, and behavioral norms together act to constrain the rate and magnitude of carbon emissions reductions in the coming decades. The inertia of carbon emissions due to such mutually reinforcing physical, economic, and social constraints is referred to as carbon lock-in. Carbon lock-in is a special case of path dependency, which is common in the evolution of complex systems. However, carbon lock-in is particularly prone to entrenchment given the large capital costs, long infrastructure lifetimes, and interrelationships between the socioeconomic and technical systems involved. Further, the urgency of efforts to avoid dangerous climate change exacerbates the liability of even small lock-in risks. Although carbon lock-in has been recognized for years, efforts to characterize the types and causes of carbon lock-in, or to quantitatively assess and evaluate its policy implications, have been limited and scattered across a number of different disciplines. This systematic review of ...