Energy transition-related extractivism in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique: Frontier of a just transition?

The energy transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon renewable energy sources has been established as an indispensable solution to global climate change; one of the most defining societal challenges of the twenty-first century. Consequently, accelerating the adoption of low-carbon technologies within global energy systems has become central to sustainable development debates. However, an increase in the deployment of low-carbon technologies implies a surge in extraction of the minerals considered critical to constructing these technologies. The increased extraction of energy transition-related resources (ETRs) has proved paradoxical, generating new and exacerbating pre-existing socio-economic and environmental challenges in extractive locales. Within this context, scholars have emphasized the need for attention to notions of justice and equity in the energy transition. Yet, how just transitions might be realized remains contested and little understood. This thesis is oriented at this critical juncture between climate change action and development aspirations.

It addresses this gap by examining the emerging impacts of ETR extractivism in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, and by exploring how such extractive processes might be governed toward a more just transition. Hosting multiple graphite and natural gas projects, Cabo Delgado is a prominent African destination for extractive capital targeting ETRs. The study used the frontier approach and Africana Critical Theory as its main analytical frameworks. Africana Critical Theory critiques domination and injustice in African colonial and postcolonial life worlds and seeks to promote liberatory social transformation toward inclusive development. It used a combination of qualitative and geospatial methods as the key methodological approach.

Utilizing these frameworks, the study historically contextualized the impacts of ETR extractivism in Cabo Delgado; examined the cumulative impacts of multiple ETR projects that constitute the Cabo Delgado frontier; analyzed the socio-economic contradictions to a just transition manifesting through this frontier; and explored the role of frontier actor alliances in governing ETR extraction processes toward a more just transition. The study’s key findings indicate that ETR extractivism is not redressing the deeply detrimental way people in Cabo Delgado have been affected by conventional extractive processes. The outbreak of an armed insurgency in the province, partly attributed to marginalization of the province’s population from ETR exploitation processes, epitomizes local discontent with these processes.

The study concludes that just transition studies need to go beyond projects and, where relevant, beyond commodities, to more comprehensively understand and critically inform debates on the extractivism and just transition dynamics in African frontiers. In such studies, methodologies attuned to broad spatial and temporal scales, and theoretical frameworks sensitive to both global transition dynamics and post-colonial realities, are crucial for comprehending frontier dynamics and informing geographically plural conceptualizations of a just transition. In the policy context, the study advances a more pronounced focus on ETR frontier governance as potentially enabling more central roles for populations in Africa in shaping just transition pathways. Grounded in an empirically rich African perspective centering the lived experiences of people on the continent, the thesis findings inform ongoing academic and policy debates on justice in global energy transitions and climate responses.