Towards Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions Webinar Series

How to make the energy transition a transformative socioeconomic project that truly works for and with everyone, everywhere?

This is the main question behind this webinar series organised by the International Development Studies Group at Utrecht University's Faculty of Geosciences, in collaboration with the partners of the EMPOWER Network1 and the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges.

With a special focus on the Global South and social reproduction, and on energy transitions in particular, the webinar series aims to discuss ways in which green transitions can create sustainable development benefits for vulnerable and traditionally excluded communities and groups. Special emphasis is given to the discussion of lessons-learnt, and challenges and opportunities of ongoing and past programmes and initiatives to make the energy transition work for the people, so that the transition “leaves no one behind”. 

The webinar series is part of a broader, emergent effort to place the socioeconomic and environmental distribution implications of the green transition more prominently and rigorously in the research and policy agenda at Utrecht University and beyond. To this end, special attention is given to climate, environmental, mobility and spatial justice issues among different social groups along citizenship & nationality, class, gender, generational, racial and other place-relevant sociocultural attributes in multiple geographies across the Global North-South and East-West divides.

We will kick-off the series with a roundtable on Thursday, 21 October (2-3.30pm CET), followed by weekly seminars on Tuesdays up and until November 30, 2021. The sessions will provide an opportunity to share and exchange knowledge and experiences on just and inclusive energy transitions in an open and interactive format. Researchers, lecturers, students, practitioners, policy makers and concerned citizens are welcome to join the webinar series.

The organisation of the seminars is led by Dominique Schmid, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, Kei Otsuki, and Annelies Zoomers (Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University). If you have any questions regarding one of the seminars, please feel free to contact Dominique Schmid at d.v.schmid@uu.nl. 

You can find more information on the individual webinar sessions by following the links in the overview below.

1. EMPOWER is a global network including research institutions, social organizations, and private sector representatives. The network’s focus is on challenges and chances related to the energy transition so that it “leaves no one behind”. Pushing the energy transition in the direction of inclusive and sustainable development requires a good under-standing of local contexts and it requires the direct engagement of different groups of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries.