Latest advancements and challenges of technologies and methods for accelerating the sustainable energy transition

This editorial discusses the contributions of the papers belonging to the virtual special issue (VSI) of Energy Reports dedicated to 16th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conference held in Dubrovnik on 10-15 October, 2021. Original research articles presented at the SDEWES Conference relevant to the Journal are included in this VSI for a total of 27 accepted papers among those invited by the Guest Editors. Accepted papers deal with key research topic related to the scope of the conference, such as energy, water, and environmental systems, meeting the aim and scope of Energy Reports. The main topics of this VSI cover innovative and renewable energy technologies, building-plant design solutions and simulation tools for the early design of sustainable buildings and communities, energy management strategies, clean fuels and energy conservation measures. The latest advancements and challenges to accelerate the mitigation of climate change towards a net zero energy economy are discussed in detail. The VSI collects the most relevant contributions of researchers committed to develop novel energy solutions and multidisciplinary approaches towards the sustainable development, crucial to ensure a just energy transition and, simultaneously, to reduce sources of conflict and iniquity typical of geopolitical tensions. The final goal of the effort of academia, industry and institution is to support the sustainable development towards a cleaner environment, energy security, and social equity. To this goal, the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conference represents a platform for the development of inter-sectoral collaborations among scientists and stakeholders. The SDEWES Conference brought together around 630 scientists, researchers, and experts in the field of sustainable development from 58 Countries. According to the papers published in the VSI of Energy Reports dedicated to 16th SDEWES Conference, the editorial is split in several sections based on the relevant topics dealt by the VSI paper, such as: energy efficiency in buildings: measures and methods, solar based technologies for building applications, development and use of building energy performance simulation tools, energy communities and urban modelling, clean fuels and sustainable use of natural resources and energy saving practices.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).