The political economy of the ‘just transition’

TLDR

The just transition concept has entered policy discourse to ensure equity for energy‑poor communities and fossil‑fuel workers while aligning with climate justice for present and future generations facing greenhouse‑gas‑induced disruptions. This study seeks to identify and analyze the complex political trade‑offs that will shape collective efforts to implement a just transition. The authors examine procedural and distributional dimensions of energy politics—energy access for the unserved, justice for fossil‑fuel workers, and strategies to reconcile simultaneous energy and climate justice goals.

Abstract

This paper explores the political economy of the ‘just transition’ to a low carbon economy. The idea of a ‘just transition’ increasingly features in policy and political discourse and appeals to the need to ensure that efforts to steer society towards a lower carbon future are underpinned by attention to issues of equity and justice: to those currently without access to reliable energy supplies and living in energy poverty and to those whose livelihoods are affected by and dependent on a fossil fuel economy. To complicate things further this transition has to be made compatible with the pursuit of ‘climate justice’ to current and future generations exposed to the social and ecological disruptions produced by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Here we seek to identify and analyse the immensely difficult political trade‐offs that will characterise collective attempts to enact and realise a just transition. We explore procedural and distributional aspects of energy politics and practice in particular as they relate to the just transition: energy access for those who do not have it; justice for those who work within and are affected by the fossil fuel economy; and attempts to manage the potential contradictions that might flow from pursuing energy and climate justice simultaneously.