Just Transitions

Abstract

This panel puts justice at the center of decarbonization by asking who bears the costs of transition, who gains, and how these distributive conflicts are governed across sectors and regions. It opens with the political economy of fossil fuel stranding, examining how responsibilities for “left-behind” assets are allocated among firms, states, and financiers—and what this means for investment, credibility, and social consent. Several papers then unpack contested meanings of “just transition” in practice: work on South Africa traces divergent visions within environmental and labour movements, highlighting both coalition frictions and opportunities for alignment. The panel also follows the material and social infrastructures of “green” change, from the environmental and conditional community impacts of mining for clean technologies to the often-unrecognized labour and household decision-making that sustains climate adaptation in India. Bridging these grounded cases with a multi-level governance perspective, another contribution analyzes how international organisations position themselves in an emerging eco-social policy space, shaping norms, policy instruments, and boundaries of responsibility.

Title	Details
Exploring International Organisations’ Positioning in the Possibility Space of Global Eco-Social Policymaking	View Paper Details
The Environmental Costs of Going Green: Mining and its Conditional Impacts on Local Communities	View Paper Details
Divergent Visions of Just Transition in South Africa's Environmental and Labour Movement	View Paper Details
Whose Problem is Fossil Fuel Stranding?	View Paper Details
The Labor of Climate Adaptation: Unacknowledged Work and Household Decisions in Indian Climate Adaptation Projects	View Paper Details