Not just an energy transition: exploring justice claims of the just energy transition partnership with South Africa
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2025-06-27
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en
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Just energy transitions have emerged as a guiding paradigm to support the decarbonization of energy systems based on principles of justice and equity. The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with South Africa represents an attempt to operationalize justice as a central vehicle with unprecedented financial resources. Despite this commitment, critical questions remain about the definition and implementation of justice within the partnership and broader energy transitions. This research scrutinizes this ambiguity by applying four tenets of justice–distributive, procedural, recognition, and restorative–alongside political ecology to explore four manifestations of justice instrumentalization in the South African JETP.
The manifestations, including loan-based financial structures, overemphasis on labor at the expense of broader justice concerns, misplaced priority portfolios such as green hydrogen and new energy vehicles, and lastly a reduction of restorative justice to ecological rehabilitation, are investigated through document analysis, a qualitative questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews.
Findings reveal that while a broad just transition is promised, implementation recreates patterns of accumulation and extraction over justice-led reform. Beyond the core manifestations, the findings advance justice principles critical for a just energy transition, namely calling for transparency, decent work, broad ownership and participation in the transition, and multi-scalar considerations for effective implementation.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen