Climate Justice and Just Energy Transitions in India's Climate Governance
The paper seeks to examine the concept of just energy transitions within the broader context of climate justice in India. The emergence of the discourse of ‘just energy transitions’ witnessed in the aftermath of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has led to a revival of the debate on the meaning and application of just energy transitions. Despite its criticisms at the global level in terms of promoting narrow plurilateralism, the paper argues that within the domestic context, the framework can open avenues to contribute to the development of robust conceptions of climate justice at the subnational level. Providing the space for interrogating the vulnerable position of marginalized communities in India, it can explore how caste and gender identities have often worked to hinder equitable access to natural resources, thereby undermining climate justice at the subnational level. This is further compounded by the existing climate governance mechanisms which prioritize market mechanisms over rights-based approaches, and by the judicial discourses which often do not take into account the trade-offs involved in sustainable development policies and community rights. In this context, the paper explores how the lacuna of diverse perspectives in India’s domestic climate justice framework can be addressed by the emergent just energy transitions framework.