Activation through opposition: Indigenous contestation and state institutions in the just energy transition

Abstract

Some renewable energy projects in the Global South succeed in generating just and equitable outcomes, while others fail. Existing streams of research disagree on the roles that private regulation, state institutions, and civil society contestation are driving just and equitable outcomes in the energy transition. Each of these camps overemphasizes the unilateral role of a single driver, as opposed to examining them as intertwined variables. The main research question is: What explains variation in outcomes of opposition by local indigenous communities across cases of renewable energy and green mineral development projects in the Global South? To answer this question, the article examines strength of state institutions and indigenous contestation across comparative case studies of renewable energy development–cases of geothermal development in Indonesia and the Philippines and lithium extraction in Argentina and Chile—to study variable just and equitable outcomes. The article finds support across cases that state institutions and indigenous contestation are compounding variables that shape project developers' (firm) compliance and affect just and equitable outcomes; state institutions alone are insufficient and must be activated through contestation over firms' noncompliance with social-environmental standards to ensure just and equitable outcomes.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Energy Research & Social Science, 2026 · DOI ↗