ABSTRACT
This chapter situates the context for the volume and emphasises that transition has to be systemic involving people, technology, and finance. Ensuring sustainability in the energy mix is particularly challenging when it is not directly in consonance with energy security, affordability, and access. It then introduces the contributions in brief. This is followed by a discussion on many other matters that are germane to the area but not adequately covered such as the role of the private sector, specifically MSMEs, the linkages of transition with adaptation, demand-side issues related to consumption level and patterns, the role of savings in financing the transition, arriving at an appropriate social discount rate, the distribution grid, and lessons from international experiences. Noting that the costs of delaying or slowing the pace of the transition are enormous, the chapter concludes with enablers to arrive at a sustainable energy mix. These include technological innovation that can be scaled up, creation of supporting supply chains and infrastructure, availability of necessary natural resources, effective capital reallocation and financing structures, compensating mechanisms to address socioeconomic impacts, governing standards and effective institutions, and political commitment and support from citizens and consumers.
