Emel Akcali
Co-Investigators: Ugo Rossi (Gran Sasso Science Institute), Hara Kouki (University of Crete), Irem Inceoglu (Kadir Has University)
KF25\100428
Green Energies on the Ground Across the Mediterranean: Multi-site exploration of the contested politics of the green energy transition from a community perspective
King's College London
£287,237.08
This project tackles the interconnected challenges of climate change, sustainable transition to green energy and community involvement across the Mediterranean.Via the Green Deal, the European Union (EU) pursues the goal of zeroing carbon emissions within EU space and a 'green deal diplomacy' in its immediate neighbourhood. The EU Green Deal, however, is not solely an environmentalist policy but a socio-political and economic process. It, therefore, also needs to be observed and interrogated from the ground, at the level of local communities, challenging the predominantly state-centric standpoint in contemporary energy politics. Based on in-person interviews, participant observation and documentary filmmaking of everyday experiences of local ownership of green energy in three geopolitically connected countries of the Mediterranean, namely, Turkey, Greece and Italy, this project aims to contribute to the development of a community-driven sustainable green transition as a research field and explore its role on climate policies at a practice-based level.
Meghan Alexander
Co-Investigators: Christopher Woodard (University of Nottingham), Neelke Doorn (Delft University of Technology), Maria Kaufmann (Radboud University), Adam Searle (University of Nottingham), Sarah Bezan (University College Cork)
KF25\100303
Coastal Adaptation for REstorative justice (CARE)
University of Nottingham
£299,934.61
Just responses to climate risks are essential, yet adaptation decisions (how, when to act or not act) present a host of justice dilemmas. The least understood, is how to recognise and redress past, present and future harms caused by adaptation (in)action – known as restorative justice. On the coast, the loss of place, sense of security and agency are just some of the harms experienced by communities. However, the non-human world is equally at-risk. The challenge is how to resolve these injustices in coastal adaptation and transitions planning.
This interdisciplinary project (environmental geography, environmental humanities, political science, philosophy) examines how restorative injustices for human and non-human worlds are shaped by coastal adaptation (in)action in England and the Netherlands. Using diverse methods – literary analysis, deliberative dialogues, governance analysis, interviews and participatory workshops – the research will advance theoretical understanding and inform recommendations and decision-support instruments to facilitate restoratively just adaptation.
Louisa Egbunike
Co-Investigators: Katharina Greven (University of Bayreuth), Nathan Richards (University of Nottingham), Ini Dele-Adedeji (Durham University)
KF25\100418
From Biafra to the Niger Delta: Art, Memory, Conflict, and Environmental Justice
Durham University
£295,581.40
This project explores just transitions in the Niger Delta, connecting legacies of the Nigeria-Biafra War with ongoing environmental and socio-economic challenges. It employs an interdisciplinary methodology integrating art production, oral histories, and fieldwork, focusing on the experiences of local communities. The project investigates how sustainable, equitable transitions away from oil dependence can be realised in a region affected by decades of environmental degradation and the trauma of war. Central aims include fostering multisensory engagement and community dialogue to uncover hidden narratives. Outputs will include a dynamic exhibition at the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos, an edited scholarly volume, and a ‘living archive’ documenting diverse perspectives on the region's history and future. By linking post-conflict reconstruction with the urgency of just transitions, this project advances discussions on environmental justice and decolonial development strategies for the Niger Delta, offering innovative insights into how art and interdisciplinary research can contribute to sustainable futures.
Ben Elliott
Co-Investigators: Alice Rudge (SOAS), Graeme Warren (University College Dublin)
KF25\100174
Prehistoric Policies? How ideas of the ancestral human condition influence British and Irish Just Transition policy, and why it matters
University of the Highlands and Islands
£268,937.28
Prehistoric Policies (PP) will examine the contested figure of the ancestral human; a conceptual amalgam of evolutionary origins, prehistory, and long-term behaviour, which currently underpins several strands of Just Transition (JT) policy in Britain and Ireland. Surprisingly, as policymakers plan for a JT, they often operationalise the figure of the prehistoric, ancestral human to theorise and contextualise the required societal changes.
The role of the ancestral or prehistoric human in popular/academic discourse has seen recent critique. Whilst its original construction was driven by anthropologists/archaeologists, it is now maintained by a wide range of actors, including popular science writers, who often lack an understanding of its empirical basis or political implications. PP will interrogate how popular science, academic research and policy interlink to use and sustain the ancestral human, and show why and how the ancestral condition features in future-focused JT debates; why this matters; and what the implications are.
Giedre Jokubauskaite
Co-Investigators: Julia McClure (University of Glasgow), Vera Pavlou (University of Glasgow), Johanna Cortes-Nieto (University of Rosario), Alma Sarmiento Jaramillo (University of Rosario), Rafael Tamayo-Álvarez (University of Rosario), Lina Parra Cortés (Andean University of Simon Bolivar)
KF25\100409
Green Precarity
University of Glasgow
£299,485.00
‘Green’ interventions risk exacerbating existing inequalities, unless designed and implemented to ensure just transition. This project focuses on the micro-level side-effects of initiatives that seek to ‘green’ the economy. It brings together a bilingual (English and Spanish) team of academic and non-academic researchers from law, arts and history, based in Scotland and Latin America, to develop the cross-disciplinary lens titled ‘green precarity’. This lens highlights how green programmes and initiatives deplete the abilities of structurally vulnerable groups to sustain life. By identifying to what extent and how green economy impacts negatively on local communities, green precarity sheds light on new forms of exploitation and dispossession. We then ask whether and under what conditions could legal and governance regimes reverse processes of precarisation of life, and promote fairer socio-ecological transitions. Ultimately, the project sets a novel agenda that will assist policymakers in designing environmental programmes that do not exacerbate existing inequalities.
Daniel Kyereko
Co-Investigators: Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang (University of Ghana), Araba A.Z. Osei-Tutu (University of Ghana), Mary Boatema Setrana (University of Ghana), Richard Boateng (University of Education, Winneba), Benedict Arko (University of Education, Winneba)
KF25\100183
Informal Learning and Intergenerational Cultural Transmission: Navigating Just Transitions in Fulani Nomadic Communities of Ghana Amidst Socio-Economic and Environmental Challenges
University of York
£270,162.65
This research explores informal learning and inter-generational cultural transmission within nomadic Fulani communities in Ghana. Central to the study is the concept of just transitions, which ensures that sustainability efforts are inclusive of marginalized groups. For the Fulani, this means integrating their traditional ecological knowledge into modern environmental and economic policies. The research will examine how the Fulani, with their transnational migration patterns, preserve and adapt their knowledge amidst socio-economic and environmental challenges.The study is globally significant as it addresses issues faced by mobile and marginalized communities worldwide. By focusing on informal learning, where knowledge is passed through everyday interactions, the study offers insights into equitable policies that support education, migration, and cultural-preservation. Using a mixed-methods approach, the team will document Fulani oral histories, observe daily life, and analyse evolving cultural practices. This approach ensures that Fulani voices guide the findings, informing policies that respect their unique needs.
Roy Maconachie
Co-Investigators: Sophia Hatzisavvidou (University of Bath), Yixian Sun (University of Bath), Bossissi Nkuba (Catholic University of Bukavu), Haiyan Wang (University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
KF25\100487
Green energy at what cost? Cobalt extraction, alternative futures and the quest for a ‘just transition’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
University of Bath
£280,916.00
The development of renewable-energy technologies is key to a low-carbon economy, but production at scale will require a boom in the extraction of key ‘energy-transition minerals’ (ETMs). Although the socio-political, economic and environmental impacts of increased ETM extraction will be significant, prevailing notions of a ‘just transition’ to net-zero fail to critically confront these impacts, or their implications. Focusing on cobalt, an essential element in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, this project will deploy perspectives from the humanities and social-sciences to deepen understanding of the ‘hidden costs’ of a just transition. We will critically explore initiatives that seek to improve the sustainability of the cobalt supply chain, and consider future possibilities for a more just transition. Working closely with partners in DRC and China, two major players in the global cobalt supply chain, we will incorporate innovative, scenario-building participatory methodologies, to enact a step-change in energy transitions research and policy-making.
Utsa Mukherjee
Co-Investigators: Auður Aðalsteinsdóttir (University of Iceland), Auður Magndís Auðardóttir (University of Iceland)
KF25\100201
Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition
Brunel University London
£294,842.38
The Icelandic Government’s action plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 overlooks families as key stakeholders, despite the fact that families are directly impacted by changing climate and the actions taken to achieve carbon neutrality. This interdisciplinary project, co-designed with multiple government agencies across Iceland, addresses this ‘missing link’ in Iceland’s climate action policy. It does so through two interlocking strands. The first strand of the project analyses post-Independence Icelandic literature and films to develop a deeper understanding of how climate change has marked family lives over the years and what lessons can be learned from the past. The second strand adopts an ethnographic approach to capture the impact of climate policy on contemporary Icelandic families. By drawing together historical and contemporary understandings of climate action and family life, the project will identify what additional state support and policy changes are needed to centre families in Iceland’s just transition.
Chukwumerije Okereke
Co-Investigators: Kennedy Mbeva (University of Cambridge), Joanes Odiwuor Atela (Africa Research and Impact Network, Kenya), Emeka (Taraba State University), Elizabeth Esekong Adnrew-Essien (University of Calabar), Elvin Nyukuri (University of Nairobi)
KF25\100054
The Global Political Economy of Just Transitions for and in Africa
University of Bristol
£299,915.53
This research explores how global political and economic forces interact with local dynamics to shape just transitions for and in Africa, focusing on Nigeria (West Africa) and Kenya (East Africa). As African nations strive to fight poverty and meet global net zero targets, they face unique challenges in attracting the necessary finance, investment, and technology. Our study examines the influence of global geopolitics, historical power imbalances, and local political economies on these transitions, particularly in the energy, critical minerals, and forest sectors. We explore the risks of new climate injustices emerging from these processes and identify opportunities for Africa to assert greater agency in pursuing fair and equitable transitions. By integrating insights from multiple stakeholders across Africa and beyond, this research will provide actionable recommendations on various pathways to just transition for Africa, and contribute to the broader discourse on achieving global just transitions in the context of climate change.
Tim Schwanen
Co-Investigators: Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali), Gaurav Mittal (University of Oxford), Anwesha Ghosh (National Law School of India University)
KF25\100429
Just Transitions on Indian Streets
University of Oxford
£297,952.46
As Indian cities seek to transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient futures, streets become a prominent arena where questions of justice play out. The government’s climate policies usually disregard the knowledges and experiences of street-based workers, who earn their livelihood on/from the streets. Mosty from lower-caste (Dalits) and Muslim communities, these workers face widespread indignity, humiliation, and historical erasure. Building on postcolonial scholarship on environmental justice and feminist understandings of dignity and recognition, and through fieldwork in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata, this project develops a critical decolonial praxis on dignity and recognition. This praxis establishes the centrality of social misrecognition and systematic invisibilisation of street-based workers in the environmental justice discourse in Indian cities. In doing so, the praxis expands, decentres, and decolonises just transitions so that alongside justice, transitions pave the way for dignified, inclusive, and emancipatory futures for some of India’s most vulnerable worker segments.
Benjamin Sovacool
Co-Investigators: Andrew Curley (University of Arizona), Adam Fish (University of New South Wales), Sangeetha Chandra-Shekeran (University of Melbourne)
KF25\100545
Decolonising the Just Transition: Energy Epistemologies and Energy Justice in three Indigenous Communities
University of Sussex
£296,856.65
This humanities and social science project aims to revolutionize Just Transitions practice and discourse by giving voice to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, energy poverty, and renewable energy industrialization–Indigenous people. By examining “energy epistemologies” or how Indigenous people know and value energy and its relationships to justice, this project promotes a more inclusive and pluralist conception of Just Transition. Working with Indigenous communities, we will document energy epistemologies with the Diné, or the Navajo of the Southwest of Native North America, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji, in north Queensland, Australia, and the Mincéirs or Travellers of North Ireland. Collaborating with Indigenous scholars, communities, and renewable energy developers, this project will (1) link energy epistemologies to notions of energy justice, (2) influence policies by advancing Indigenous energy justice in policy debates, and in the process (3) contribute to the theory and practice of Indigenous energy justice and Just Transition.
Renata Anna Tyszczuk
Co-Investigator: Riccarda Flemmer (University of Tuebingen)
KF25\100465
Re-Staging Climate Assemblies
University of Sheffield
£292,355.00
Re-Staging Climate Assemblies is an interdisciplinary project at the intersection of research on arts and humanities perspectives on climate change and innovations in deliberative democracy, Through ‘re-stagings’ of citizen climate assemblies co-designed with youth diaspora communities in Sheffield, UK and Tübingen, Germany, it will collectively assemble a body of stories, tools and resources for more inclusive and just climate adaptation and mitigation conversations. The project will address engagement with underrepresented citizens within climate assemblies and acknowledge diverse knowledges, insights and modes of deliberation. It will explore the potential of participatory arts-based approaches, notably scenario-making, for innovating within democratic processes and catalysing transformative climate action. The project directly addresses increasingly urgent demands at local, national and international levels for more inclusive, deliberative and active modes of citizenship in relation to climate change and just transitions. In doing so it puts social and environmental justice centre stage.
Please note: Awards are arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.