Just transitions under pressure: from early visions to new proposals and trajectories in the Global South

Just transition has gained salience in international climate governance, yet its meaning remains mainly defined by institutional and academic frameworks of the Global North. Here, I trace the concept’s genealogy, exploring how its meaning has shifted over time, and examine its too-often underexplored contemporary uses in the Global South. A transregional and multi-scalar analysis of Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, drawing on heterogeneous sources, reveals three recurring, overlapping just transition articulations: technocratic policy approaches centred on energy-sector restructuring; grassroots environmental justice mobilisations emphasising human rights and territorial protection; and systemic transformation discourses highlighting the (geo)political-economic constraints shaping multilevel climate policy. They underscore intertwined structural barriers to transformative measures, such as epistemic exclusion, governance asymmetries, climate finance injustices, and growth-oriented economic rationalities. Finally, I highlight how they mirror, differ from, or expand early conceptions from the Global North, thereby advancing a conceptual cartography of just transitions in global climate politics.