Introduction: Contesting the moral worlds, scales, and epistemics of energy transitions.

The introduction to this special issue, Contesting Transitions: New Directions in the Anthropology of Energy, Climate Justice, and Resource Imaginaries, takes stock of the current state of debate within anthropology and allied fields over the contradictions, slippages, and inequalities at the centre of the global energy transition. Across a wide range of critical case studies, the contributions underscore the importance of attending to what is being elided by dominant discourses and forms of production, such as alternatives to socio-material understandings of energy and resistance to the inevitability of extractivism as the basis for new ways of living. Even more, the collection takes up and problematizes the concept of 'transition' itself on historical, ethnographic, and epistemological grounds. After describing the themes that emerge from the special issue, and explaining how these themes point toward new configurations of research, theory-building, and critical intervention, the introduction concludes with a broader argument about the indispensable place of a critical anthropology in debates over energy and Anthropocenic harm.

Low Carbon Mobility Transitions and Justice: A Case of Costa Rica.

This research article analyzes the electrification of light-duty vehicles and its implications on equity and justice paradigm within a pro-green policy environment. The case of Costa Rica is investigated as the country has already gained considerable momentum in decarbonizing its economy and considers the transportation as the next step in its sectoral transformation. We evaluate the transition through different lenses of sustainability, equity and justice using socio-technical system transition and the energy justice frameworks. The outcome of the analysis is compared with the existing policies and plans for transport decarbonization in Costa Rica. The findings suggest that (a) the country should foster industry-academia collaborations and engagements to fortify knowledge sharing networks for low-mobility innovation, (b) subsidization of electricity cost for electric vehicles seems essential to incentivize market pull, and (c) Costa Rica should proceed towards the creation of domestic and local electric vehicles manufacturing capacity to provide an industrial environment for building long-standing technological learning and accumulation.

Talk renewables, walk coal: The paradox of India's energy transition.

Coal is on the rise in India: despite the devasting impacts of the climate crisis, the awareness for land and forest rights, and political talk of a coal phase-out. In this article, we demonstrate that despite the renewables-led rhetoric, India is in the midst of a transition to (not away from) greater use of coal in its fossil energy system and in the electricity system in particular. We investigate this paradox by combining socio-metabolic and political-ecological analysis of the Indian coal complex. Our framework integrates material and energy flow data as characterizing the Indian fossil energy transition, indicators on the development and structure of the coal industry, and studies of ecological distribution conflicts around coal. The dominant claim to expansive use of coal and the competing counterclaims are indicative of underlying power relations which can also be witnessed in other countries. In India, they extend into the conflicted development of renewable energy including hydropower, in which the land dispossession, exclusion, and injustices associated with the expansion of the coal complex are reproduced. We conclude that the current energy transition - in which coal continues to play a dominant role - is neither sustainable nor just.

Education for just transitions: Lifelong learning and the 30th anniversary Human Development Report.

The 30th anniversary Human Development Report, entitled The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene, was released by the United Nations Development Programme in December 2020. It marks an important step forward as a high-profile publication trying to radically re-think the challenge of sustainable development and revisit what it means to develop as human beings interconnected within earth systems. This article provides a critical reading of the report, and human development literature more widely, in assessing the role of lifelong learning in educating for just transitions, which it broadly understands as the transformation of all social systems, including economic systems, to bring them back into balance with earth systems in which they are embedded. The report maintains its trademark "human development lens" which has characterised the series since their inception in 1990. It prioritises consideration of capabilities, agency and values as central to the challenge, and opens up a discussion of how we need to change our understandings, values and actions, including what it means to be human, in order to effect just transitions towards sustainability. However, as the authors demonstrate, the report falls short of considering the lifelong learning challenge inherent and central to just transitions. The authors argue that the pressing challenge of responding to the climate emergency requires a richer understanding of how humans learn throughout their life course. In so doing, this article is a contribution to both the literature on education and human development, and the growing body of literature in the field of adult education and sustainability.

L'éducation pour des transitions justes : l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie et l'édition qui marque le 30e anniversaire du Rapport sur le développement ­ L'édition du Rapport sur le développement, parue à l'occasion de son 30e anniversaire et intitulée La prochaine frontière : le développement humain et l'Anthropocène, a été publiée par le Programme de développement des Nations Unies en décembre 2020. Publication de haut niveau, le rapport constitue une importante avancée dans la tentative de repenser radicalement le défi que pose le développement durable et de revoir ce que veut dire notre développement en tant qu'êtres humains liés entre eux au sein des systèmes de la Terre. Cet article propose une lecture critique du rapport et, plus globalement, de la littérature sur le développement humain, en évaluant le rôle de l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie dans l'éducation pour des transitions justes, qu'il envisage plus largement comme la transformation de tous les systèmes sociaux, y compris des systèmes économiques, afin de restaurer un équilibre entre eux et les systèmes de la Terre dans lesquels ils sont ancrés. Le rapport continue de passer par « le prisme du développement humain ¼, la marque de fabrique qui le caractérise depuis sa création en 1990. Il donne la priorité à la prise en compte des capacités, de l'instrumentalité et des valeurs qui sont au cœur du défi, et ouvre le débat sur la façon dont nous devons modifier nos conceptions, valeurs et actions, y compris en ce qui concerne la signification de ce qu'est être humain, pour mener à bien des transitions justes sur la voie du développement durable. Néanmoins, les auteurs démontrent que le rapport est loin de considérer que le défi de l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie est inhérent à des transitions justes et fondamental pour elles. Ils soutiennent que l'urgence de répondre au changement climatique demande une conception plus riche de la façon dont les humains apprennent tout au long de leur existence. Ce faisant, l'article contribue à enrichir la littérature sur l'éducation et le développement ainsi que celle de plus en plus abondante sur l'éducation des adultes et le développement durable.

How do past global experiences of coal phase-out inform China's domestic approach to a just transition?

China produces nearly half of the world's coal and more than half of the global coal-fired electricity. Its CO2 emissions are higher than the combined volumes of the next three world regions-the US, Europe, and India. China has announced a net-zero commitment by 2060. This timeline creates enormous pressure to maintain energy security while phasing down coal use. Despite the localized nature of China's coal production with nearly 80% of its thermal coal industry concentrated in four provinces, the dependencies are complex and extensive. Large-scale changes to energy systems will result in a range of social, cultural, and economic disruptions across China's urban, rural, and remote regions. This paper examines experiences with coal transitions in other jurisdictions and considers implications for China. We examine the drivers, successes, and failures of coal phase-down in Germany, Poland, Australia, the UK, and the US. Despite significant differences in scale and complexity, these experiences offer important insights for China as it works to meet its climate commitments.

Just transitions: Histories and futures in a post-COVID world.

The energy landscape is changing dramatically. Communities are being impacted in different ways. Positive impacts include reductions in air pollution and new tax revenues from renewables. Negative impacts include lost jobs and foregone tax revenues after closure of large fossil fuels generation facilities and coal mines. The contours of this transition have been further altered by recent events such as the global oil market crash and the COVID-19 pandemic. While economic and social issues can be addressed through thoughtful policy design, the pace of change, and the extent to which communities have a say in what comes next, matter. Though the technical issues of transitions are well-researched, the socio-economic aspects of the energy transition remain both emergent and essential to an equitable transition to a low-carbon energy system. This article provides an overview of the history and current status of just transitions.