What is...Climate Justice?

What does a just energy transition look like, and how do politics and power shape the global transition to low-carbon energy? In this episode, we speak with Peter Newell (University of Sussex), a leading expert on the political economy of environment and development, whose career spans more than three decades of research at different universities, including the Universities of Sussex, Oxford, Warwick and East Anglia, and FLACSO Argentina, policy advising, and activism. From climate change governance to corporate accountability and trade policy, he has worked across multiple continents, including Argentina, China, India, and South Africa, to analyse how political and economic forces influence environmental decision-making. With extensive experience advising governments (UK, India, Ireland, Sweden, Finland), international organisations (UNDP, GEF, UNCTAD, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank), and NGOs (Friends of the Earth, Climate Network Europe), he explores the challenges and opportunities of a just transition to low-carbon energy with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins. A former Greenpeace UK board member and advisor to the Greenhouse think-tank, he has also edited the European Journal of International Relations and serves on the boards of Global Environmental Politics, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Environment and Development, and Earth Systems Governance Journal. How do global power structures shape climate policy? What role do non-state actors play in driving or obstructing change? And how can governance be reimagined for more effective climate solutions? Tune in to learn why we must understand the energy transition through the lens of capitalism, ecology, and power.

New ERC/UKRI funded project SUS POL

Co-founder of the Rapid Transition Alliance

Newell, P. (2024). Back from the dead: the ecology of IR. International Relations, 38(3), 331-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178241269708

Newell, P., Roz Price, R. & Daley, F. (2024). Landscapes of (in)justice: Reflecting on voices, spaces and alliances for just transitions, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 116, 2014, 103701, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103701.

Newell, P. (2024). Towards a more transformative approach to climate finance. Climate Policy, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2377730

Szabó, J. & Newell, P. (2024): Driving towards a just transition? The case of the European car industry, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 115, 2024, 103649, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103649.

Newell, P. & Daley, F. (2024). Supply-side climate policy: A new frontier in climate governance. WIREs Climate Change, 15(6), e909. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.909

Newell, P. & Carter, A. (2024): Understanding supply-side climate policies: towards an interdisciplinary framework. Int Environ Agreements 24, 7–26 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-024-09631-3

Newell, P., Daley, F., Mikheeva, O. & Peša, I. (2023). Mind the gap: The global governance of just transitions. Global Policy, 14, 425–437. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13236