Prof. Mara Tanelli from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano and her co-authors Oriana Guagliardi, Eugenia Villa e Valentina Breschi have recently received the 2026 Paper Prize Award from the IFAC Journal of Systems and Control for the article “Fair closed-loop policies for fostering the energy transition: A control-oriented approach”.
The article proposes a new quantitative tool to help policymakers design energy transition policies that are not only effective but also socially equitable. The method makes it possible to assess how resources and incentives can be allocated while balancing three key objectives: promoting the uptake of sustainable technologies, keeping costs under control, and ensuring fair treatment across different social groups.
Applied to the case of green mobility, the study shows that placing greater emphasis on fairness may lead to a slight reduction in the rate at which new technologies are adopted, yet ensuring a social impact that reduces inequalities. The findings therefore highlight the need for tools capable of transparently measuring and balancing effectiveness, costs, and social justice in energy transition policies.