The oil and gas sector offers some of the greatest challenges and opportunities for global efforts to secure a just transition. Africa is a key oil and gas producing region, but it is also the part of the world that is most vulnerable to climate change, despite having the smallest historically-accumulated carbon footprint.
As the world’s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest need for revenue to meet the frustrated aspirations of its citizens, but oil and gas extraction currently fuels corruption and conflict rather than powering development. In this new project funded by the British Academy programme on Just Transitions within Sectors and Industries Globally, researchers from IDS, PowerShift Africa, IESE, Spaces for Change and the University of Sussex Department of International Relations are working together to identify ways to shift this dynamic in the direction of greater social and climate justice. Building on previous research on civic space and the politics of energy in Africa and on strong partnerships with national and local organisations in Kenya, Nigeria and Mozambique, we aim to identify challenges, enabling conditions and entry points for ensuring inclusive deliberation on what a just transition would look like for the citizens of oil and gas producing regions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
