Justice in low-carbon transitions: Energy justice, just transitions and utility-scale wind power in Oaxaca, Mexico

Over the last decades, global energy transitions towards decarbonisation have been driven by concerns of climate justice. As part of this transition, Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) are often portrayed as a more socially just form of energy production. However, RETs come with both benefits and burdens, internalised and experienced differently by diverse groups at the local, national or international scale. Claims for justice have become an essential element of energy transitions and concepts including energy justice and just transitions have emerged to provide interdisciplinary engagement with energy systems and their social embeddedness, facilitating both the identification and amelioration of social justice, equity, and fairness issues. This chapter draws from the case of utility-scale wind power development in Oaxaca, Mexico, to demonstrate why approaches beyond technical fixes, such as energy justice and just transitions, are necessary to reveal low-carbon transition dynamics and the trade-offs of RETs development in the global south.