• Energy Research

AbstractThe concept of a ‘just transition’ to a low‐carbon economy is firmly embedded in mainstream global discourses about mitigating climate change. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's political economy elaborated inThe Great Transformation, we interrogate the idea of a just transition and place it within its historical context. We address a major contradiction at the core of global energy transition debates: the rapid shift to low‐carbon energy‐systems will require increased extraction of minerals and metals. In doing so, we argue that extractive industries are energy and carbon‐intensive, and will enlarge and intensify social and ecological injustice. Our findings reveal the importance of understanding how the idea of a just transition is used, and by who, and the type of justice that underpins this concept. We demonstrate the need to ground just transition policies and programmes in a notion of justice as fairness.

The Covid-19 pandemic is reshaping the world economy. Headline news stories depict mining companies as a stabilising force: supporting the flow of resources to keep the economy moving, and contributing to local welfare initiatives for communities in crisis. We argue that this narrative masks important details about the local conditions where mining companies operate. The issues at the company-community interface are typically invisible to distant audiences. While travel restrictions are necessary to limit community-spread, these constraints push interfaces in mining communities further into the unknown. The effects of the global pandemic will be far reaching. Scholarship is needed to understand the dynamics of mining in the time of Covid-19 and to place present impacts, actions, and decisions in their proper historical context.