Energy dependence and rising pollution from the energy sector have compelled states to re-evaluate their energy policies and legal frameworks in favour of sustainable energy development. In this context, energy transition emerges as a strategy to achieve global climate goals while ensuring energy security. However, making the energy transition a “just transition” presents numerous challenges. These challenges are growing as innovation in the energy sector accelerates, with digitalisation presented as a tool to drive the energy transition and optimise current energy systems. This trend has been integrated into the EU’s policy objectives and regulated by the EU’s legal framework. However, this political decision has sparked ethical and legal debates about the digital transformation of the EU energy sector, particularly regarding energy justice. By analysing instruments in the EU’s policy and legal framework, this paper addresses the intersection of the twin transitions through the lens of energy justice. Therefore, this study assesses the EU policy and legal framework of twin transitions from an energy justice perspective. The geographical scope of this research covered the EU. The methodology includes doctrinal legal research. The conclusions of this research encompass an assessment of selected EU policy and legal instruments applicable to the twin transitions.

This special collection entitled ‘Green Transition or Social Transformation? Socio-economic Costs and Challenges of Energy Transition for Working People’ is an invitation to further study the role of labour in the energy transition and the impact of the current form of transition on workers’ lives. Above all, however, it raises fundamental questions about the future trajectory, aims, and scope of the transition. It also suggests that it is worth speaking openly not only about technological change but also about systemic change − one that incorporates economic and political dimensions and must accompany the energy revolution. A transition that leaves hierarchical social structures intact, that fails to critique the economic mechanisms exploiting both people and the environment, or that does not challenge existing relations of power which colonise nature and the working classes, is not a transition at all. It is merely ‘old wine in new bottles,’ designed to ensure the further reproduction of the prevailing system and to create new forms of capital accumulation. This collection presents reflections, analyses, and proposals addressing issues often overlooked in the green transition: the concerns of working people, their anxieties over employment and economic security, and a new form of colonisation under the guise of technological changes in the energy sector. The authors suggest, however, progressive solutions that go beyond the status quo, such as a ‘transformative just transition’, labour environmentalism based on the inseparable relationship between labour and nature, and social–ecological development.

Energy-efficient biomass cookstoves and small solar systems play an important role in the transition to clean energy. Despite their affordability and scalability, uptake remains low among households in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines whether household-level behavioural factors help explain this under-adoption. Drawing on data from real-purchase offers in rural Rwanda and Senegal, we analyse how willingness to pay for the technologies varies with risk aversion, innovation resistance, time preferences and beliefs. These traits explain part of the variation in purchase decisions, though effects are generally moderate. The findings improve our understanding of consumer behaviour with regard to innovative consumer goods at the base of the pyramid and inform policy and market strategies of suppliers entering these markets. We conclude by recommending that behavioural approaches be applied conservatively and only in conjunction with efforts to improve affordability and access.

Energy poverty remains a persistent challenge in Nigeria, where over 40% of the population lacks reliable electricity despite vast renewable energy potential. While SDG 7 frames universal energy access as a justice imperative, renewable energy transitions generate complex social and environmental trade-offs that remain underexamined. This study assesses Nigeria’s renewable energy transition through the lens of energy justice, incorporating distributional, procedural, recognition, and restorative dimensions. Guided by three research questions, it evaluates: (1) the integration of energy justice principles in policy, (2) their implementation in practice, and (3) whether the transition can be considered just overall. Drawing on qualitative expert interviews, findings reveal multidimensional non-economic impacts. Benefits include improved health, enhanced educational access, livelihood opportunities, and environmental gains. However, significant harms persist, including displacement, land-use conflicts, electronic waste, cultural disruption, and gender-based vulnerabilities. While justice principles are often articulated in policy, implementation remains uneven: participation is frequently tokenistic, benefits are short-lived or unevenly distributed, vulnerable groups are insufficiently recognised, and reparative mechanisms are weak or absent. By linking these deficits to the persistence of energy poverty, the study shows that Nigeria’s transition remains incomplete from a justice perspective, underscoring the need for more inclusive and accountable governance frameworks.

From the World Bank’s ‘Climate-Smart Mining’ initiative or ‘Resilient and Inclusive Supply-Chain Enhancement’ program to the IMF’s ‘Energy Transition Strategies’, international development institutions have plenty to say about the role of the supply chain in securing critical minerals for green energy technologies.1 This article forms part of a bigger project that examines how the form of the supply chain, in the context of the contemporary energy transition, entrenches the patterns of distribution and accumulation that we often associate with the fossil fuel economy. In this way, I argue that the supply chain contributes to suppressing alternative legal forms of decarbonization.2 Multiple international legal practices and modes of thought are involved in this suppression. In this article, I offer an account of how logistics, as a practice, discipline of supply chain management, and form of governance or jurisdiction contribute to foreclosing possibilities for alternative forms of decarbonization in ways that both implicate international law and point to possibilities for contestation.

In the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMed) region, the transition to low-carbon power must be achieved while ensuring security of supply, affordability and development. Using the Just and Sustainable Energy Transition framework and a neo-institutional lens, we analysed 470 study–country–family observations (2000–2025) across 11 jurisdictions and 7 instrument families to create an institutional mechanism map. Three regularities stand out. Systems performance signals dominate in nine countries, primarily through time-differentiated pricing, settlement discipline and codified connection, queuing and curtailment rules. Financing and integration risks are often addressed together where auctions, revenue-support schemes, published access terms and standardised long-term contracts coexist with system rules. Equity-related signals arise where prosumer compensation and reconciliation rules influence participation and cost sharing at the retail margin. These patterns provide an interpretive basis for sequencing constraint-led reforms in SEMed power systems that target binding risks while respecting fiscal and distributional constraints.

Using the synthetic difference-in-differences method, this study evaluates the comprehensive effects of the ‘coal-to-gas’ policy in China following its complete implementation in 2017. We propose four channels through which the policy could affect the air quality in untreated cities. The findings reveal a significant decrease in air pollution levels, as measured by PM10, in both the treated and untreated areas. However, the net spillover effect in the treated and untreated areas exhibits heterogeneous spatial distribution patterns due to different mechanisms. These differences could be related to the political economy and natural geography of China.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels is in the best interest for long-term stakeholders of oil firms to mitigate risk from climate policy. Yet firms have an informational and positional advantage over strategies to mitigate climate-related risks, such that there is little incentive to decarbonize. Building on theories of firm behavior and the three faces of political power, we argue that investor pressure will be unlikely to change the climate strategy of fossil fuel firms. To measure climate strategy, we develop a novel technique using natural language processing tools to parse annual filings of all publicly-listed oil firms in the US. Using a difference-in-differences design exploiting an exogenous shock to shareholder power from a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory amendment, we find no effects of shareholder pressure on deep reforms to climate strategies and weak effects on incremental pro-climate behavior. Through a case study of ExxonMobil, we show that climate-motivated investors are unable to overcome internal stakeholder resistance, despite shareholder pressure through direct communication, filed resolutions, and media campaigns. Our findings illustrate that polluting firms remain resistant to financial pressure for decarbonization, suggesting an important role for policy.

Industrial energy consumption in Spain increased significantly since 1960, driven by fossil fuels, with dependence on them barely decreasing until the 2008 crisis. This paper analyzes whether the phase-out of fossil fuels in Spanish industry was delayed by structural constraints inherent in the sector. It presents novel annual series of primary and final energy use, useful work and energy intensity across twelve sectors over 1960–2021. Data from five statistics were compiled, corrected, and harmonized. Results indicate that three sectors—building materials, steelmaking, and chemicals—accounted for more than half of primary consumption throughout the period. The carbonization of electricity generation in the first period and high thermal requirements and size of these sectors, particularly during the construction boom, hindered electrification and reductions in energy intensity. As in other Southern European industries, the weight of construction may have slowed the transition to a zero-emissions industry in the early twenty-first century.

Achieving net-zero energy systems requires combining technological deployment with governance innovations that secure public legitimacy, equity and international credibility. Nuclear energy – including large reactors and emerging small modular reactors (SMRs) – offers firm, low-carbon power that can complement variable renewables, but expansion is constrained by public distrust, governance fragmentation, workforce challenges and concerns about cost and waste. This article advances the Qudrat-Ullah Nuclear Peace and Trust (Q-NPT) framework as a systemic governance approach that explicitly embeds trust, equity and institutional learning into nuclear energy deployment strategies, aligning nuclear investments with energy transition objectives. Using Canada as a detailed case, we map Q-NPT elements onto Canadian governance structures, energy infrastructure and nascent SMR programs. Empirical material (national generation shares, regulatory milestones, SMR licensing progress and workforce trends) shows both the opportunity and the governance barriers Canada faces.

This study introduces measurable governance metrics – covering trust, equity, transparency, participation and institutional capacity – to evaluate nuclear social legitimacy and transition readiness. Quantitative thresholds include targeted increases of ≥20 percentage points in public trust; ≥25% Indigenous participation in decision processes; ≥80–90% transparency in project documentation and a workforce pipeline of 75,000–90,000 skilled workers by 2040. These thresholds provide a predictive, results-oriented basis for evaluating governance progress, addressing a key gap in existing nuclear policy frameworks.

We propose actionable institutional reforms (independent trust panels, stakeholder engagement protocols, workforce pipelines and international integration strategies) and an operational roadmap for Q-NPT implementation. Results indicate that applying Q-NPT measurably improves governance performance compared to conventional models by elevating trust, reducing procedural conflict, strengthening equity outcomes and accelerating regulatory acceptance. Without such deliberate trust-building and equity mechanisms, nuclear energy’s technical potential will remain underutilized; conversely, Q-NPT provides a structured pathway for achieving just, credible and scalable decarbonization.

Despite the proliferation of research, more systematic attempts to trace worker experiences across production networks of renewable energy remain marginal. This limits our potential to offer meaningful insights to guide future political mobilisation and policy measures for organised labour and workers more broadly. As a partial remedy, I provide an initial description of labour processes in wind energy. To do so, I carry out labour regime analysis. The utility of the labour regime framework stems from its ability to help the analyst to understand the labour process better by grounding it into a systematic theoretical framework to capture more effectively how dynamic political economic processes condition workplace outcomes. In my analysis, I highlight how capitals-in-competition within energy production networks facilitate structural conditions that intensify the rate of wind worker exploitation. Critically, the ecological sphere of the labour regime mediates the capital-labour interaction, which helps to explain the significant number of hours and extended timelines expected of wind technicians and those involved on project developments, as project owners push for time intensive schedules to reduce wind turbine downtime. My work also extends labour regime scholarship by arguing that ideational constructions, informed by different spheres of the labour regime, govern the labour process in important ways, which suggests that future studies might more seriously consider how ideational notions of work, such as Gramscian ‘common sense’ expectations, maintain labour regimes. I reason that a combination of these factors, both material and ideational, has made workplace organising in wind difficult.