ABSTRACT
Energy demand, usually indicated by the amount of energy currently consumed in different sectors, is a key factor in national and international energy and climate change policy. In the energy world, demand has different meanings and associations: it often figures as the logical partner to ‘supply’; it is tied to interpretations of ‘need’; and it is the subject of various forms of intervention, including methods of ‘demand side’ management. In this chapter we distinguish between definitions that (a) interpret demand as the energy required to meet current and future needs and (b) those that take energy demand to be inseparable from the constitution of energy services and social practices. The latter position highlights the ongoing dynamics of demand and the part that policy makers and others play in establishing and changing what people do and the energy requirements that follow.
