Since early November 2021, I have been leading a short project entitled ‘A Just transition away from coal in Australia’, funded by The British Academy as part of its Just Transitions Programme.

Building on my Leverhulme International Fellowship, Just Coal? this project is a collaboration with Prof. Susan Park and Dr. Robert MacNeil, both from the University of Sydney’s Department of Government & International Relations and the Sydney Environment Institute.

In this project, we are assembling evidence on how the ‘just transition’ from coal is being defined in Australia, exploring the challenges Australia will have to overcome to implement a ‘just transition’ from coal and developing a new broader approach to just transition which helps inform global efforts to justly achieve the climate action that is urgently needed.

Examining the opportunities and challenges of just transition from coal in Australia is important both because Australia’s domestic electricity remains coal-dependent but also because Australia remains one of the world’s largest coal exporters. Australia’s ability to achieve a just transition will therefore have significant implications for efforts to decarbonise in Asia-Pacific and the world, both directly through the coal supply chains Australia is embedded in and enables and indirectly through Australia’s regional diplomacy and development aid.

Contact me if you’d like to find out more about the project.