Introduction: Are We Underestimating the Global South?

This handbook addresses the urgent need in the Global South to tackle climate change, global energy transitions, and sustainability – areas that, due to their importance, have increasingly dominated international policy discourses and scholarly debates. We begin by outlining the general nature of the subject and highlighting several reasons we believe have contributed to its relative neglect. We also contend that these issues have relevance to certain other regional contexts.

Discussions around the topic often occur within frameworks heavily influenced by the historical legacies of colonialism, with such discourse continuing to shape the socio-economic and political contexts of the Global South. Far from resembling other texts, this handbook critically engages with the intersection of decolonisation, sustainability, energy transition, and social justice, foregrounding perspectives from the Global South. Not because of their greater relevance – there is much to be covered – but for the practical reason that their inclusion is essential for developing context-specific approaches to sustainable development that respect diverse histories, cultures, and lived experiences. Nor are we particularly drawn to modern ideas of sustainability and energy transitions that claim to represent progress, for we recognise that these frameworks frequently originate from the Global North and often embody Western epistemologies, technological paradigms, and development priorities.