Depending on the system boundaries, the scale and the pace of the transformation, different types of challenges arise. We see a need for enhanced clarity on the many uses of the transformation concept in climate and sustainability science and policy. The authors (and SDG Transformations Forum participants) of Sustainability Transformations: Agents and Drivers Across Societies suggest a basic framework to distinguish between fundamental aspects of systems change.

First, they reflect on the boundaries of the societal system that is being transformed, ranging from specific parts of civilizations to entire civilizations. Second, they consider the pace at which such transformations are thought to occur, from the perspective of a decade to centuries. Examples include:

• Rapid and comprehensive transformations on a civilizational scale, such as the reshaping of cultural and economic practices coinciding with the development of electronics, information and communication technologies;
• Relatively fast transformation of particular institutions, such as when Britain abolished slavery in the early 19th century, where slavery had been seen as a natural order five decades earlier;
• Protracted processes spanning centuries such as the great European civilization transformation identified as industrialisation or modernisation (depending on what drivers are in focus); and
• Relatively slow, gradual transformations of particular segments of society, such as carbon net-zero energy and urbanization.