Presentation short abstract

Building on a growing chorus of critics, this paper argue that the energy justice framework risks extending the violences of the racial colonial capitalist present into a post-carbon future, and considers what a decolonial abolitionist energy future might entail.

Presentation long abstract

Scholarship on energy justice has gained traction in academic and policy circles alike, in part because it offers a practical framework for assessing the fairness of energy systems and for charting a course towards a renewable energy future. Insofar as it demands an equitable distribution of harms and benefits, fair and inclusive decision-making procedures, and the recognition of rights of structurally marginalized groups, the energy justice framework presents as a progressive improvement on the grave injustices that have accompanied the fossil fuel energy regime. However, a closer look reveals that this call for justice leaves the dominant structures of the racial colonial capitalist order intact and shielded from critique. Specifically, in its calls for distributional justice, the framework is silent on the logics of capitalist accumulation which produce the uneven distributions it denounces. In its calls for procedural justice, the energy justice framework assumes the sovereignty and legitimacy of the colonial state, thereby denying the authority and jurisdiction of Indigenous legal and political systems. And, in its calls for recognition justice, the framework disregards decolonial critics who contend that the “politics of recognition” deepens dispossession and undercuts more radical demands to dismantle colonial relations. Drawing on examples from Canada, Scotland, and Norway, this paper builds on a growing chorus of scholars who argue that the energy justice framework serves to extend the violences of the racial colonial capitalist present into a post-carbon future. In conclusion, I consider what a decolonial abolitionist energy future might entail.