Accountable Solar Energy Transitions in Financially Constrained Contexts

Abstract

Environmental accountabilities span the full range of societal commitment to rapid low-carbon transitions or lack thereof. This realist understanding can be applied to ‘just transitions’. Societal commitment to just transitions is underpinned by the degree to which the socio-economic conditions and political entitlements of ordinary people influence the governance of carbon-intensive sectors like energy. The sustainability transitions literature has largely focused on cases of low-carbon transition frontrunners in well-resourced contexts, less on economically constrained transition contexts. This chapter seeks to advance our understanding of environmental accountabilities through two cases of solar energy transitions in the financially constrained contexts of Portugal and Rajasthan—two political jurisdictions where ambitious solar rollouts are shaped both by higher-level authorities (i.e. the European Union and India, respectively) with low-carbon transition imperatives, and by social justice pressures from below. Based on pre-pandemic fieldwork and desk study during 2021–2022, the cases examine how issues such as energy poverty, energy ownership and control over energy infrastructure manifest over multiple scales and within financially constrained contexts characterised by different developmental trajectories. We identify dynamic accountability pressures, mechanisms and relations in these rapidly evolving solar sectors, to highlight the salience of societal commitment and political legitimacy alongside transition policies.