Contested development, green extractivism, and common but shifted responsibility
Abstract
This piece concludes the Focused Issue on Just Transitions in the Global South intended to make up for the limited studies of dynamics of just transitions in the Global South with its unique colonial history, structural constraints, development challenges, and weak governance systems. A careful reading of the contributions from this collection reveals three interrelated themes: (a) just transition as contestation of development visions; (b) the on-set of green extractivism; and (c) a gradual movement towards shifted responsibility where developing countries are subtly shifting the burden of global clean transition to countries and communities that are least responsible for climate change and least equipped to bear the cost. The findings suggest that a broader and more nuanced understanding of just transitions is required, one that accounts for national contexts, realities, and priorities, global connectivity, and the need of the most vulnerable and affected communities. The most important question for the next decade for climate politics may not be how quickly the world transitions but whether the transition itself becomes another mechanisms through which historical injustices are reproduced.