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Paper short abstract:

The transition is building on unequal and extractive architecture. The expanding mining industry anchoring it has attracted capitalists. Its probability of creating winners and losers is high. Thus, it is an unjust process capable of reproducing and reinforcing socio-environmental injustices.

Paper long abstract:

The extractive industry has been traditionally associated with negative impacts, especially in the Global South. While several attempts have been made to correct this conundrum, the urgency of curbing climate change through energy transitions presents an even bigger challenge. The transition’s heavy dependency on strategic minerals requires the expansion of the mining industry to meet the rising global demand. The combination of ballooning demand in the Global North and industrialized states like China and the Global South’s endowment with considerable critical mineral reserves increases producing regions’ vulnerabilities given the asymmetrical environmental power relations. It raises the chances of reproduction and reinforcement of environmental and social injustice associated with the extractivism of the colonial past. Thus, least-developed countries face a threat of resource plunder to meet demand in their developed counterparts while leaving them exposed to new forms of environmental injustice through bearing the burden of the negative impact of mining. Accordingly, the energy transition can produce winners and losers, placing the global agenda for a just transition in jeopardy. This paper examines the socio-environmental justice likely to be triggered by the expansion of mining operations in developing countries in the name of climate action (adaptation and mitigation). It concludes that the energy transition in its current commercialized form is building on unjust foundations of gross environmental inequalities.

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Paper short abstract:

We study the impact of Indonesia’s social forestry on mangrove deforestation and poverty. Using data and official indices, we focus on indigenous forest rights and its interactions with public services, aiming to inform effective social forestry practices for conservation and environmental justice.

Paper long abstract:

Building upon evidence of positive environmental and social impacts arising from granting forest management rights to indigenous people and local communities, our study examines the nationwide impact of Indonesia’s social forestry (SF) policy on reducing mangrove deforestation and alleviating poverty at village level. We will measure mangrove forest cover change using publicly available datasets, such as those from Mapbiomas Indonesia. The measurement of poverty alleviation will be through social resilience and economic resilience indices developed by the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration. These indices, informed by three waves of village survey data from the Indonesian Statistics Agency (2014, 2018, and 2021), echo aspects of the multidimensional poverty index developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Our focus lies on adat (indigenous) forest designation, where communities are granted full bundle of rights without temporal limitation. Another key feature of Indonesia’s SF involves commercialization through business cooperative establishment, expected to contribute further to poverty alleviation. Furthermore, we will also consider the interaction between SF and other direct and/or indirect factors that may influence its effectiveness in reducing mangrove deforestation and poverty. One example is investment in basic public services (e.g., healthcare and education facilities, roads) essential for value-addition in remote areas, recognizing that rural poverty stems partly from limited access to public services and connectivity. This study aims to inform the government and practitioners of social forestry and mangrove conservation, fostering a more cohesive evaluation of the global agenda of forest-based climate mitigation, conservation, and environmental justice.

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Paper short abstract:

Utilizing a mixed-method approach, our objective is to evaluate the public acceptance of fuel subsidy elimination in Colombia within the context of the nation's social contract. Through interviews, we examine alternative reform designs and gauge public attitudes using a discrete choice experiment.

Paper long abstract:

The elimination of fossil fuel subsidies presents a practical strategy for global south countries to bolster climate mitigation endeavours. In our research paper, we delve into the crucial role of public attitude toward the subsidy removal in Colombia. Since 2022, the Colombian government has gradually elevated gasoline prices to align with global market rates, aligning with its aspiration to become a carbon neutral society. A parallel initiative for diesel prices is slated for implementation in this year.

While fuel subsidies historically aimed to support vulnerable households, their primary beneficiaries are high-income households that consume greater amounts of fossil energy. The elimination of these subsidies raises concerns about the government's fulfilment of its social contract, for instance if adequate replacements for poor and vulnerable households are lacking. Other instances, such as those in Ecuador, France, Nigeria, and more recently Germany, illustrate how the elimination of subsidies incite widespread protests with broad societal support, highlighting their role in the countries' social contract.

Our research adopts a mixed-method approach to assess the public acceptability of the elimination process and its implications for Colombia's social contract. We conduct interviews with stakeholders involved in or affected by the process to gather diverse perspectives on the impact of subsidy removal on the social contract. Additionally, we explore alternative reform designs that could enhance public acceptability. Using insights from these interviews, we design a discrete choice experiment to test various reform options, aiming to identify alternatives that effectively improve public attitudes toward the policy.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper examines different strategies taken by investors from Japan, South Korean, and China to support phase-out of coal fired power plants in Indonesia. The findings shed light on the variation in foreign investors’ engagement with climate action in emerging economies.

Paper long abstract:

Achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals requires a rapid transition of our energy system from fossil fuels. This transition is especially needed in large emerging economies where electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. While many emerging economies have made pledges on net zero, their transitions are often influenced by foreign investors who control significant amounts of assets in their energy sector. Focusing on the case of Indonesia – a major emerging economy with a coal power-based electricity sector but strong commitments to clean energy transition, we comparatively examine the strategies taken by investors from China, Japan, and South Korea to phase-out of coal-fired power plants. The three East Asian countries together have financed most of the coal-produced electricity in Indonesia, but they seem to have different strategies in engaging with Indonesia’s energy transition. Using data from various sources, we find that Japanese investors have agreed to support early retirement of a coal plant (Cirebon 1) whilst South Korean investors have transformed some coal-fired plants to hybrid ones utilizing green ammonia and green hydrogen (Java 9 and 10). In the meantime, Chinese investors have yet to make any concrete action to support phaseout of their plants. To explain this variation, we inductively propose a framework based on the development finance model adopted by foreign financiers and transnational networks in which they are embedded. Our study sheds light on foreign investors’ influence on energy transition in developing countries and identifies pathways to leveraging transnational support for climate action.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper illustrates the role of International Climate Finance (ICF) in shaping the just energy transition discourse in India with its co-benefits approach and forming political coalitions along the way.

Paper long abstract:

India’s energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy presents a unique paradox: A booming renewable energy market and massive revenue loss from phasing down fossil fuel reserves. The informal nature of India’s fossil fuel sector with millions employed to date and coal accounting for almost 40 percent of the energy mix demands the transition to be ‘Just’ which will cost trillions of dollars. Within this narrative, the role of ‘International Climate Finance (ICF)’ holds particular importance. The research on ICF so far has been skewed to its inadequacy along the lines of the North-South divide. This paper illustrates the flip side of the coin and tests ICF from a point of retrospection where the hits and misses so far towards a just energy transition in India are accounted. This is carried out by creating a quasi-database of 1900 ICF projects constituting the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) from the period 2000 to the present. The analysis entails the spatial distribution of these projects and the extent to which these projects have capacity-building initiatives in particular to rural skill training programs and job creation opportunities in the fossil fuel regions of the country. This is then investigated to identify ‘political coalitions’ along the way, that are key in the just transition discourse in India.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the justice implications of climate change for disadvantaged urban communities including women, immigrants, refugees and LGBTQ+. Using Sydney and Dhaka as case study, I examine how climate change programs and policies are conceptualized, mobilised and put into practice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper primarily provides new evidence to inform climate policy and resilience strategies, through qualitative fieldwork, archival research and ethnography. The comparison of Sydney and Dhaka aims to inform evidence-based policymaking across developed and developing urban environments. The cross-disciplinary approach integrates city planners in both Sydney and Dhaka, by supporting SDGs. Specifically, the study finds the progression of SDG 10 ‘Reduced Inequalities’ and climate action strategies by investigating the drivers and intersectional markers of marginalisation together with sustainable resilience building process within both urban communities.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the nexus between extractivism and climate justice in Zimbabwe. It explicates what can be termed violent and predatory extractivism in both old and new mineral frontiers, showing how political rhetoric on green transition is playing out for local communities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the nexus between extractivism and climate justice in Zimbabwe. The country has been going through protracted political crisis, particularly so after the post-November 2017 ‘military assisted transition’. Available data shows that the extractive sector plays a strong economic role in different countries, many of which face challenges such as resource dependency and weak governance. Selected key sectors - mining and energy - are at the core of extractivism in Zimbabwe, leaving the country stuck in the fossil energy age. This comes at a time when the world is calling for green transitions to cleaner and sustainable renewable energy and the country has made commitment to low carbon development strategy. The new lithium frontier is expanding and mutating, and this can facilitate clean mobility transition while also creating green job opportunities. The paper utilizes various case studies to explicate what can be termed violent and predatory extractivism in both old and new mineral frontiers, showing how political rhetoric on green transition is playing out, and how climate justice remains an illusion for local communities.

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Paper short abstract:

This study focused on the decision-making of multiple self-governing groups of rice farmers in Southern Philippines and Mekong Delta in Vietnam in the context of meso-level polycentric adaptive system to a slow-onset climate-related event such as saltwater inundation.

Paper long abstract:

Decisions regarding adaptations can be undertaken at several scales, at the individual level, local communities, institutions, state governments, and international organizations. Regardless of the scales, there is an interest in assessing adaptation strategies' performance or relative merits. In the case of the saltwater inundation in rice farms, where farmers in contiguous locations uniformly feel the effect, collective adaptation is a predominant strategy that hinges on cooperation among key stakeholders. Rational agents are supposed to consider the cost and benefits of cooperation, which then determine their adaptation preferences. This study focused on the decision-making for climate change adaptation influenced by systematic cognitive biases and social interaction among farmers in selected rice-farming provinces in Southern Philippines and Mekong Delta in Vietnam. This research aimed to examine the influence of social preferences under the context of a meso-level polycentric adaptive system of multiple self-governing groups of rice farmers with site-specific characteristics and capabilities, interacting through collective action for a common goal —in this case, adaptation to a slow-onset climate-related event such as saltwater inundation. Of particular interest were preferences for adaptation measures that require cooperation rules, especially on the use and access to common pool resources such as irrigation and behavioral responses to different scenarios of climate change impacts. It applied an approach, applying both qualitative and quantitative assessment of rural rice-farming households' adaptation measures to respond to saltwater inundation. It also took into account explicitly the effect of temporal scale. The study classified adaptation measures into specific categories and developed a multi-criteria assessment tool for adaptation measures based on stakeholder analysis and expert judgment. The analyses addressed different levels of interaction between rice farmers, extension workers, and government bodies. An understanding of the delicate dynamics of collective adaptation is highly needed so that planners and authorities communicate climate change adaptation strategies with people who ultimately are the ones who have to accept and integrate these strategies into their lives and livelihood systems. The multi-level decision-making between people, the private sector, farmers, and government bodies can be potentially effective and socially cohesive if a comprehensive understanding of the collective adaption in polycentric systems at the community level is attained. Deliberative and planned anticipatory adaptation has the potential to reduce vulnerability and realize opportunities associated with climate change, regardless of autonomous adaptation. Implementation of deliberative adaptation policies, programs, and measures usually will have immediate benefits, as well as future benefits.