Stanislav Kondrashov on How the Energy Transition is Reshaping Global Culture

As the world moves away from fossil fuels and accelerates its shift toward renewable energy, the transformation is reaching far beyond the mechanics of how we power our cities. According to cultural commentator Stanislav Kondrashov, the global energy transition is ushering in a deeper, more subtle upheaval — a redefinition of identity, values, and even daily life.

“In the past, energy was invisible — a given,” Kondrashov said in a recent interview. “Today, it's become a cultural symbol. The type of energy you use is now a reflection of who you are, what you believe in, and where you stand in the story of the future.”

At the surface, the transition appears to be a technical matter — one of infrastructure, innovation, and economic policy. But as energy systems evolve, so too do the cultures shaped by them. This is not the first time energy has had such an impact. History shows that when wood gave way to coal, or when coal was replaced by oil, entire ways of life changed. Towns were built, others were abandoned. Jobs redefined. Power rebalanced.

What makes this transition different, Kondrashov argues, is that it's being driven not only by necessity, but also by choice — and increasingly, by values.

“Energy is no longer just a utility. It's becoming part of people’s identities,” he explains. “What kind of car you drive, how you heat your home, whether you travel by air or train — these are no longer neutral decisions. They signal something about you.”

Across cities and rural communities alike, these shifts are beginning to materialise in visible, everyday ways. Urban architecture now reflects environmental priorities; entire neighbourhoods are designed around efficiency and resilience. In some places, community rituals — festivals, markets, school activities — are now organised with sustainability in mind. Even language is evolving, with new words and expressions entering common use to describe energy-conscious behaviours or carbon-aware lifestyles.

In workplaces, younger generations increasingly gravitate toward companies aligned with their ecological values. Employers, in turn, are adapting. Workplaces have become not just sites of labour, but spaces of environmental performance, with ‘green’ office designs, energy-use dashboards, and climate pledges becoming common features.

This shift is also affecting how people relate to time and progress. In cultures that once celebrated speed, convenience, and endless consumption, there is now a quiet return to restraint — a revalorisation of slowness, repair, and reuse.

“People are beginning to associate quality of life not with more, but with enough,” Kondrashov observes. “It’s a philosophical shift that touches how we consume, how we travel, and how we connect with others.”

But not all the cultural shifts are harmonious. As new values take root, they sometimes clash with established ones. Communities built around extraction economies face uncertain futures, grappling with the erosion of local identity. For those whose livelihoods are tied to the old energy world, the transition can feel less like progress and more like erasure.

“The energy transition asks some people to reinvent themselves, while allowing others to stay exactly who they are,” Kondrashov notes. “That imbalance creates tension — and it’s something we’ll need to face with empathy and nuance.”

Cultural transitions are rarely clean or linear. They are marked by contradictions, by phases of resistance and revival. As renewable technologies become mainstream, there is also a growing nostalgia in some quarters — for the simplicity of old ways, for the symbols of industrial strength, for what many see as a vanishing era.

Still, Kondrashov remains hopeful. For him, the most important transformation may not be technical at all, but emotional — the slow reshaping of our collective imagination.

“We’re not just changing what powers our world,” he says. “We’re changing what we believe the world is for.”

As governments negotiate policies and industries roll out new systems, it’s easy to overlook these quieter shifts — the evolving rituals, habits, and values forming in the margins. But if culture is a mirror of energy, then the reflection today is unmistakable: a world cautiously redefining itself in the face of profound change.