Framework for energy transformation

We propose and adopt an energy saving conceptual framework which contains three parts: the energy conversion system, the socio-ecological system, and global environmental changes. The framework shapes our research in several ways. First, it recognises the role of young people (students) as an active player in energy consumption and carbon emissions. In years to come, they will be major decision-makers in energy use; hence, their choice of action would have a long-term effect. For example, they might decide to use energy-efficient appliances in their houses, or as a business owner, they might opt for eco-friendly office design and issue ‘green office’ guideline. If these were the case, energy consumption would be reduced significantly. For a problem that requires such complicated and time-consuming efforts as global warming to be addressed, the participation of young people would be the key to success. This enables us to target young people and investigate their responses to global environmental issues in general and climate change-related policies in particular. Second, it draws the attention to the role of education in raising environmental awareness which potentially leads to pro-environmental behaviours, especially of young people, in the long term (Van Khuc, 2022a, 2022b, 2022d). Based on these characteristics, the framework also supports the construction of young people decision models in the following sections.