The consensus is clear on the need to decarbonise faster than ever before to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Calls for a just, equitable transition from fossil fuels for developing countries supported by the North have grown louder. At COP26, India’s call for a coal “phase-down” has since mushroomed into wider calls for a phase-out of all fossil fuels, even as countries look to shield their own energy security and industry. Rich countries have since signed just energy transition partnerships with South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and possibly India, even as they renege on their climate finance promises. But what will a just, equitable transition actually look like for Global South countries with a sizable coal workforce, and where today’s polluters are crowned major green energy champions overnight? What do global green trade wars portend for critical mineral-rich territories where regulation around land and mining have been lax? This talk will examine challenges to a just transition in countries like India, based on the speaker’s reporting over the last decade.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Bio: Aruna Chandrasekhar is an award-winning climate journalist with Carbon Brief, covering stories at the intersection of agriculture, land, biodiversity, climate, science and policy. She is based in Mumbai, India. Aruna has been writing about climate change, land rights, environmental policy, energy, human rights, peoples’ movements and conflict for over a decade, in outlets including The Guardian, Scroll.in and the New York Times. She was a policy researcher at Amnesty International’s secretariat in London and covered the coal sector extensively as a senior researcher on business and human rights at Amnesty International India, while previously working with the mines, minerals & PEOPLE alliance of mining affected communities and organisations. Aruna has a master’s degree in environmental change and management from the University of Oxford. Follow her on Twitter @aruna_sekhar.