Race and the politics of energy transitions

Once again, the issue of race is dominating world events. Acts of police violence and the removal of statues of slave traders have drawn attention to issues of structural inequality, institutional racism and historical exploitation, particularly that which is associated with colonialism. I want to argue in this perspective article that the study of energy transitions needs to take issues of race more seriously than it has generally done so to date, and I want to point to some ways in which it can do so, building on emerging work and incorporating insights from other areas of scholarship and activism. I suggest four areas of intersection between race and the study of energy transitions as possible entry points for deepening engagement with these issues: the historically racialised production of energy systems; the racialised governance of energy systems; the socially uneven (including racialised) impacts of energy transitions pathways and the racialised politics of contestation and resistance.