The just energy transition debate in Brazil and Germany through an intersectional lens.

IASS Tuesday Talk, August 17, 2021
Isadora Cardoso / The just energy transition debate in Brazil and Germany through an intersectional lens: which civil society groups are addressing just transition and what do they mean by it?

The energy transition is a central debate in climate politics, a key means to meet Paris Agreement’s goals and limit GHG emissions. The debate on just transition has been taking momentum from local to international arenas and is mainly driven by civil society actors, such as NGOs, social movements and trade unions around the globe. In Brazil and Germany, current climate challenges include diversifying their energy matrix towards renewable sources in a social, environmental and economically just way. My research at the IASS seeks to identify the local civil society actors addressing the just energy transition agenda in each of the two countries, as well as analyse what they mean by and demand as a just energy transition. An empirical approach will base the analysis, so that the just transition definitions come rather by the groups identified, surveyed and interviewed than by academic or technical sources. An intersectional approach will permeate the analysis and help the empirical take, from which I will be able to see which are the issues prioritised by the groups themselves, according to their contexts (e.g. racial or intergenerational justice, worker’s rights, etc.). The research runs until April 2022 and is carried out online through desk research, survey and interview with civil society groups from Brazil and Germany, and discourse analysis of content of these groups. The project aims to contribute to more public awareness on just transition, as well as to civil society and governmental stakeholders to know who are the actors shaping this agenda in the respective countries.



Biosketch:

Isadora Cardoso is a queer feminist climate activist and expert. She is a fellow with the IASS as of May 2021. Isadora works with and studies intersectional perspectives and solutions to the climate crisis. She holds a master's degree in globalisation and development studies and has been working on and researching gender and climate justice over the past five years in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and internationally.



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