Just Capital: Transition Regimes in Globalised Climate Energy Governance
Transregional Just Transition Governance
The UN General Assembly notes with concern that international financial flows to developing countries to promote a clean, sustainable, affordable, reliable, fair, and inclusive energy transition have steadily declined, […] and calls on countries, public and private financial institutions, and other stakeholders to provide more resources to developing countries in this regard. (UN A/RS/79/211/2024)
Photograph: Alexander Gerst, ESA/NASA 03/2025
This project examines green Financialisation dynamics and emerging financing mechanisms for ecosocial transformation, with a focus on Just Transition Funds (JTFs) and Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) and Germany’s Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCD).
By analysing Germany’s dual role as both a ‘recipient’ of transition funding and a ‘donor’ and investor in Global South contexts, the study critically evaluates the potential and limitations of these mechanisms in advancing equitable and sustainable energy transitions.
Adopting a comparative socio-legal approach, the research explores how innovative governance arrangements – including diverse public-private-partnership constellations – shape transitions and address or reproduce global climate and energy in/justice. Particular attention is paid to the role context-sensitive regulation and legal plural transition frameworks in mitigating exclusion within public-private and donor-recipient relations. The analysis foregrounds the shifting global power dynamics that structure access to and control and ownership over transition finance, particularly in postcolonial and transregional contexts.
- How do novel finance and energy governance arrangements – including diverse public-private partnership constellations – address or reproduce global climate (in)justice?
- How can mechanisms such as JTFs, JETPs,and CCDs be leveraged to scale up just finance for just energy transitions, while navigating power asymmetries and pluralist legal contexts?
- How can pluriversal regulatory approaches be promoted across regions to foster just transitions and equitable global cooperation for envisioning just futures?
Current Research Focus
- Climate and energy policies and institutional frameworks
- Green financilisation and ethics
- Financing instruments for ecosocial transitions:
- Just Energy Transition Partnerships
- Carbon Contracts for Difference
- Policy crediting (Innovative Carbon Resource Application for Energy Transition)
- Hybrid Public-Private-Partnerships
