The special issue brings together diverse academic and practitioner perspectives to explore the legal and governance aspects of implementing a just transition in practice. Recent studies have highlighted how efforts to advance clean energy transition programs in energy and extractive sectors have been increasingly linked to social exclusions, greenwashing, rising energy poverty levels and constraints to access to land and other resources in already vulnerable communities. While the need for a just transition is clear, an interdisciplinary and multijurisdictional examination of the practical challenges and gaps in the design and implementation of just transition programs has remained sparse. This special issue seeks to fill this gap in the existing literature. Through thematic and geographical case studies, the contributions herein critically examine the social, environmental and human rights implications of the clean energy transition, illuminating what a just transition should entail and how it can be realized in diverse contexts.

African countries have increasingly emphasized adopting lower carbon, more efficient and environmentally responsible energy systems. Despite these efforts, little progress has been made in addressing the adverse human rights impacts of energy transition programs and projects, and the responsibilities of extractive sector corporations and operators. Existing legal and institutional frameworks supporting human rights face hindrances in adapting to local contexts to pursue clean energy transition and energy justice. Through the lens of community engagement, gender equality and other rights-based approaches, this article argues that socially excluding vulnerable groups in accessing energy markets is primarily a function of consolidating energy delivery in a way that navigates current discrimination and responds to the central roles played by different actors. The article explores how energy is produced, extracted, distributed and shared to help outline a future agenda for shaping discussions on just transitions in Africa, emphasizing the prioritization of fairness in these efforts.

This article examines the concept of just energy transition in the context of Africa. It explores two key imperatives: (1) social inclusion and (2) an environmental rights-based approach to promote just energy transitions within African countries. The article looks at social inclusion from the perspective of local communities that host energy infrastructures, highlighting potential injustices and negative impacts that may arise from the energy transition. It further argues that social inclusion and environmental rights-based approaches can be useful tools for achieving just energy transitions in Africa. The article also analyses strategies that underpin social inclusion and environmental rights-based approaches within the governance and legal frameworks for energy transition projects in Africa, including empowering local communities to ensure the transition aligns with their socio-economic standing. The article suggests that adopting socially inclusive and environmental rights-based imperatives are significant steps towards overcoming and addressing injustices in energy transition projects in Africa.

This article explores a feminist approach to energy justice. In business and human rights to date, there has been little attention to the gendered dynamics in energy transition, mirroring the lack of attention to the rights of women and girls within broader energy and energy transition discourses. Without this attention, there is a risk that energy transition efforts maintain, increase, or create new gendered inequalities, rather than diminish them. With a focus on the distributional, recognitional and procedural dimensions of energy systems, the concept of energy justice holds much potential for the field of business and human rights. Taking women’s participation in energy transition policy-making in Sub-Saharan Africa as a concrete example, we argue that a feminist approach to energy justice could be one way of operationalizing a more gender-transformative energy transition.

The transition to renewable energy models to tackle environmental degradation and climate change is one of the most important topics on the international agenda. The energy transition requires a system that is decentralised and democratic, depending more on local energy ownership and the genuine participation of the affected stakeholders. Although different states face various economic and cultural challenges, a common challenge is making the transition as inclusive and equitable as possible so that everyone can benefit equally. The article focuses on South Africa, acknowledging its special place among the Global South countries due to its history and the dependency of its economy on coal. Taking the South African experiences as an example, this article aims to show how the energy transition processes can be more inclusive and just, allowing the affected parties to participate at all levels of the just transition processes and making their voices heard.

The Paris Agreement’s commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 has resulted in an uptick in environmental laws and regulations. However, such state conduct could implicate other legal obligations and norms, including international investment law and international human rights law. The conversation about human rights, net-zero and investment treaties, including arbitration cases and arbitral awards under the treaties, is in its relative infancy. This article examines how investment treaties are equipped to reconcile relevant norms with a particular focus on corporate codes and policies that pronounce broad commitments to protecting human rights and the environment. It establishes certain principles to guide parties and arbitral tribunals as to the codes while recognizing the inevitable challenges they will face.

The International Seabed Authority is under pressure from some states and companies to adopt the regulations that would allow deep seabed mining (DSM) to commence. While presented by its supporters as necessary to procure the minerals and metals needed for energy transition, DSM presents serious risks for the marine environments and human rights whose extent is still insufficiently understood. This article focuses on whether, should DSM be allowed in the short term, the current regulatory regime would suffice to ensure that the corporations leading this activity carry out effective assessment, prevention and mitigation of environmental impacts. In order to answer this question, it explores contractor obligations as they emerge from the current version of the ‘Mining Code’. In light of persisting scientific uncertainty and the high-risk profile of DSM activities, this article contends that the current version of the regulations does not devise sufficiently stringent due diligence obligations.

This article explores the responsibility of wind energy developers for the rights of Indigenous Peoples whose lands are affected by wind energy projects. Applying a rights-based approach and drawing on three landmark court rulings involving the struggle of Indigenous communities against the development of wind energy projects, the analysis explores the insights provided by the cases for clarifying the responsibility of business actors involved in developing such projects. It examines how Indigenous Peoples’ rights are frequently marginalized or overlooked in the planning and siting of wind energy projects and the need to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples throughout a project in order to attain a transition that is just. Based on the analysis, we argue for a rights-based approach as the theoretical framework and analytical tool to advance justice in the green transition and a means to articulate the responsibilities of corporate actors within that context.

This article examines the intersection between forced labour, supply chain risks and environmental, social and governance concerns that pose a threat to the ‘Just Transition’. It addresses how states, businesses and other stakeholders drive or fail Just Transitions and why. Through an application of a ‘policy currents framework’ to the case study of solar panel supply chains originating in China, we analyse states, international organisations and civil society organisations’ framing of modern slavery issues in the context of the ‘Just Transition’. We focus on the framing of challenges and solutions to the nexus of forced labour and climate change. We draw attention to the fact decarbonisation risks are being achieved at the cost of labour rights abuses within supply chains, question whether the concept of renewable sources is ‘Just’ and provide a series of recommendations for stakeholders.

The scramble to extract critical energy transition minerals creates risk of widespread negative human rights impacts. A just transition in the extraction of critical minerals must involve deep examination of the mine-community interface to gain a better understanding of the drivers of successful engagement between mining companies and communities. Drawing on fieldwork in South America’s lithium triangle, this paper finds that the nature of the corporate-community relationship is increasingly key to enabling a just transition whereby communities participate in the benefits of extraction with negative impacts mitigated. It establishes that key success factors are related to empowerment of Indigenous communities and have the potential to maximise positive outcomes for communities in the context of lithium extraction. Governments and companies must embed a more bottom-up process with an end goal of communities themselves defining the parameters of what a just transition means in the critical minerals context.

Mining companies are rhetorically committed to corporate social responsibility standards such as human rights, but what really affects their behaviour in the developing world? Communities impacted by mines have become increasingly resistant to them, bolstered and supported by international actors and norms as well as stronger domestic environmental and justice institutions. In this paper, I examine the behaviour of multinational mining companies (primarily Canadian) in two Latin American countries in the face of social resistance, finding that domestic institutional capacity and legal mobilization have an important effect on company decisions and actions. Both are necessary—the legal opportunity structure creates an institutional context in which legal mobilization is encouraged or discouraged. Litigators interacting with competent institutions have a far greater ability to hold firms to account. Thus, company practices adjust to the country’s institutional and legal context, and behaviour varies according to host country conditions.

This article examines India’s energy transition agenda, which the central government drives to reduce the impact of climate change through the development of renewable energy. It presents a case study of the ‘Oran Land’ in the Thar desert in India, which is affected by the country’s energy transition agenda. It further highlights issues relating to human rights infringement linked to corporations undertaking the transition and operating in the ‘Orans’—a community-protected land. The article concludes with discussions on legislative developments in India and global best practices that seek to mainstream human rights into business practice and further strengthen compliance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Reflecting on the civil claim filed in France under the French Duty of Vigilance law (LdV) by members of the Union Hidalgo community in Mexico against the energy company Electricité de France (EDF), this article explores interactions between human rights due diligence in renewable energy projects. The lawsuit is one of the first cases brought under the LdV, and the first case claiming violations of Indigenous rights. The rights violations experienced by the community—the lack of free, prior and informed consent and violence against human rights defenders—epitomize the reality of harmful corporate tactics in the energy and extractive industries. Whereas the LdV enshrines a process through which communities affected by harmful corporate practices can access transnational legal avenues for redress, inconsistencies and ambiguities within the law call into question its ability to effectively regulate the human rights activities of French corporations involved in renewable energy projects.

Norway is, in many aspects, at the forefront of the global energy transition. Nevertheless, a human rights paradox in Norway’s energy transition plan is that while addressing climate-related human rights impacts, it might come at a high cost to the rights of the Indigenous Sámi People. Mining operations and renewable energy developments in the Sámi ancestral lands have already threatened reindeer husbandry, on which certain Sámi communities rely for a living, and which represents an integral component of their cultural identity. Resolving this paradox is crucial to achieving a just transition that leaves no one behind. Against this backdrop, the piece examines how the Norwegian Transparency Act—a mandatory human rights due diligence initiative—can address the impacts on Sámi rights caused by companies involved in renewable energy and extractive developments on Sámi lands.

The need to urgently shift away from fossil-based systems of energy for the sake of the planet and its people is clear. The green transition comes, however, with negative impacts on human rights and the environment, notably on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Global South, where most of the essential minerals and metals needed for the transition are found. In this piece, we discuss recent legal developments in the Netherlands from the perspective of the need for a just energy transition. Against the background of the recently adopted European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), we analyze two draft Dutch due diligence laws and their potential in the context of a just energy transition. The focus is on the rights of Indigenous Peoples who are in an extremely vulnerable position in the transition process.