'Wicked problem' is a systems engineer term for something that everybody feels needs to change, but that is also stubbornly complex and multi-faceted.

One clear example of an urgent and intractable 'wicked problem' is tackling climate change, and the global transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy.

For this edition of Shaping The Future, Heriot-Watt University chief scientist Prof Tadhg O'Donovan is with Prof Susan Krumdieck.

Susan is chair and professor in Energy Transition Engineering at our Orkney campus, and uses the term 'wicked problems' in her book Transition Engineering: Building a Sustainable Future.

This time, we are Shaping the Future of Energy.  

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