Where are the others: Marginalized and vulnerable groups' interests in just transition under international law

This thesis explores how the concept of "just transition" is understood in the literature and under international law, with a focus on whether the broader scholarly conceptualizations are reflected in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) regime. Originally coined to support workers losing their jobs due to environmental regulations in the US, the concept "just transition" has evolved in four directions in the literature: (1) linking with other justice frameworks such as climate, energy, and gender justice; (2) expanding beyond fossil fuel closures to concerns in the renewable energy sector and contested adaptation measures; (3) moving from minimizing the harms to also maximizing the gains and fairly distributing both the harms and gains and remedying the past injustices of the fossil fuel-based system; and (4) changing the leaders and participants of just transition to adopt more participatory, community-led models of transition. International law has begun to acknowledge justice concerns tied to the transition beyond workforce impacts, yet the Paris Agreement and subsequent COP documents provide only vague guidance and remain inattentive to the interests of marginalized and vulnerable groups during the energy transition. As a result, the potential of just transition as a legal concept to guide states in considering these groups while transitioning to tackle climate change is largely missed. This study highlights the gap between scholarly developments and their operationalization in international law.