Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 11 (2014) 25–45 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eist Zero emission housing: Policy development in Australia and comparisons with the EU, UK, USA and California Trivess Moore a,∗ , Ralph Horne a , John Morrissey b a College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia b Cleaner Production Promotion Unit, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 9 June 2013 Received in revised form 17 December 2013 Accepted 18 December 2013 Keywords: Policy analysis Socio-technical transitions Zero emission housing a b s t r a c t A change to a zero emission housing future requires significant innovation in both policy and practice, as described by socio- technical transitions theory. This paper examines emerging policies towards zero emission housing standards from the EU, UK, USA, Cal- ifornia and Australia to determine alignment with socio-technical transitions criteria. This analysis is then positioned within the Aus- tralian context, which is characterised by a lack of policy innovation. The limitations of existing regulatory approaches are identified. The analysis finds that a number of key socio-technical transitions ele- ments are addressed in the case studies, but there are also elements that are absent or inadequately dealt with. Five key transitions ele- ments are identified as being developed only to a limited extent in the Australian context, namely long-term goals, pathways, links to wider policies, financial innovation, and the inclusion of wider social elements. Consideration of these elements in future mini- mum energy performance standards could facilitate a transition to zero emission housing. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper takes as a starting point the proposition that zero emission housing (ZEH) is a necessary requirement to achieve a low carbon future and that policy will be required to achieve this outcome. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9925 9071. E-mail addresses: trivess.moore@rmit.edu.au, trivess.moore@gmail.com (T. Moore), ralph.horne@rmit.edu.au (R. Horne), jemorrissey@ucc.ie (J. Morrissey). 2210-4224/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2013.12.003