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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores critically unpacking and reconstructing the dominant narratives of 'justice' and 'energy transitions' in the Global South by examining how utility-scale renewable energy projects reinforce socio-ecological inequalities and injustices.

Paper long abstract:

At the heart of Olkaria, Kenya, amidst the captivating geothermal energyscapes, unfolds an ethnographic narrative of the Maasai community as rich and complex as the earth beneath them. The Maasai, Indigenous semi-nomadic pastoralists reliant on vast communal grazing lands, have faced the predicaments of the 'green' transition, which have left the community emotionally and psychologically destabilized and deprived of livelihoods and cultural identity—impacts that remain unseen and unheard yet deeply experienced. Therefore, this study critically unravels how deploying renewable energy mega-projects perpetuates and exacerbates socio-ecological inequalities and injustices. The study focuses on the overlooked duality of coexisting progress represented by unbalanced synergies and the consequences resulting from unaddressed trade-offs. Through a Critical Nexus-justice-oriented approach, the study reconstructs the on-ground realities of dominant 'just energy transition' narratives in the Global South. By tracing the roots and tracking the trails of injustices throughout the project lifecycle, this paper interrogates whether this case study reflects the "...often-disregarded dark side of the sustainable energy transition" (González et al., 2023, p. 2).