Dr Tadhg O'Mahony

Blog

  • More efficient technology is not delivering, understanding the ‘rebound’ effect

    Energy efficiency is a major plank of policy efforts to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, but has not been delivering on its promise. This has long been a topic of research, for more than 150 years, since William Stanley Jevons noted the invention in Britain of more efficient steam engines meant that the use of coal… Read more

  • Wise management and the myth of “what gets measured gets managed”

    In today’s world, the challenges and opportunities faced by public and private organisations, both governments and business, have been growing. It was this increase in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, or ‘VUCA’ problems, that led to the emergence of futures studies as a field about 80 years ago. But while future studies has spread somewhat,… Read more

  • The IPCC 2023 and the urgent need to begin systems transformation

    27 March 2023| carbon emissions, climate action, Development, development path, Economic growth, greenhouse gas emissions, IPCC, Structures, Sustainability, sustainable development path, Systems Thinking, transformation Image copyright IPCC (2023) The synthesis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) landed in recent days, prompting enhanced reflection on where we need to go if… Read more

  • Can economic growth be infinite?

    9 March 2023|Degrowth, Economic growth, post-growth ‘Green growth’ theory is interpreted as proposing that change in systems and technologies can be sufficient such that economic growth can proceed indefinitely into the future (Hao et al. 2021). Environmental and social systems are already at critical thresholds globally, and some locally and regionally (Persson et al., 2022).… Read more

  • Wellbeing, and the problem of individualism

    7 December 2022|Degrowth, Development, Economic growth, individualism, Nature, post-growth, Psychology, Sustainability, sustainable wellbeing, systems, Vision, Wellbeing A new article in Buildings and Cities, from researchers at the University of Toronto, discusses wellbeing in buildings as emerging not from an individual’s interactions with a building, but from systemic social and symbolic elements. This prompted me to… Read more

  • OECD skewer Irish transport, but leave major gaps, what’s next?

    25 October 2022| Air pollution, carbon emissions, climate action, greenhouse gas emissions, Housing, Ireland, Planning, Sustainability, systems, transformation, transport, Vision Ireland’s car-based design has reached it’s peak and now must change. File picture: Larry Cummins/ Irish Examiner The OECD have published an acutely challenging report on Irish transport, and related spatial planning policy. The report… Read more