DECOLONIAL APPROACHES TO ENERGY TRANSITIONS – UNITED KINGDOM

1. Meaning and Concept

Decolonial approaches to energy transitions examine how the shift from fossil fuels to renewable and low-carbon energy can reproduce historical patterns of colonialism, unequal resource extraction, economic dependency and exclusion from decision-making. A conventional energy transition may ask whether coal, oil and gas can be replaced by wind, solar, nuclear, hydrogen and other technologies. A decolonial approach asks a deeper question: who controls energy resources, who benefits from the transition, who bears its environmental costs, and whose knowledge and interests are recognised in energy decision-making?

In the United Kingdom, this approach is particularly relevant because Britain's historical industrial development was closely connected with coal, colonial trade, overseas resource extraction and global financial networks. A modern transition may reduce domestic fossil-fuel consumption while still depending upon minerals, manufacturing capacity and supply chains located elsewhere.

Therefore, decarbonisation does not automatically equal decolonisation.

2. Colonial Legacies in Energy Systems

Traditional energy systems were constructed around the extraction of natural resources and the concentration of economic power. A decolonial analysis challenges the assumption that energy resources exist merely as commodities available for exploitation.

The transition to renewable energy creates new demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earth elements and other critical minerals. If these materials are extracted from poorer countries primarily for consumption in wealthier economies, the transition may reproduce an extractive relationship in a new technological form.

The central concern is therefore:

fossil-fuel colonialism → mineral extraction → renewable infrastructure → continuing unequal global relationships.

A genuinely decolonial transition would seek fairer supply chains, local participation, benefit-sharing, environmental protection and recognition of communities affected by extraction.

3. Energy Justice and Decolonial Thinking

Decolonial approaches overlap substantially with energy justice. Energy justice considers distributional justice, procedural justice and recognition justice.

Distributional justice asks who receives the benefits and who bears the costs.

Procedural justice asks who participates in decision-making.

Recognition justice asks whether affected communities, cultures, identities and forms of knowledge are properly recognised.

Recent scholarship specifically argues that UK climate litigation can be understood through an energy-justice framework, identifying cases including Finch, Cumbria Coal and Net Zero Strategy litigation as relevant to procedural, distributional and recognition dimensions of energy justice.

The decolonial approach extends this analysis by asking how historical structures of power influence those three forms of justice.

4. Local Communities and Energy Infrastructure

Large renewable-energy projects can produce local benefits but can also generate disputes concerning land use, landscape, biodiversity, community participation and distribution of economic benefits.

A decolonial approach therefore rejects the assumption that achieving a national climate target automatically justifies every individual project.

The relevant question becomes:

Was the project designed with the affected community, or imposed upon the affected community?

This is particularly important for offshore wind, electricity transmission, hydrogen infrastructure, carbon capture and storage and large-scale renewable developments.

A transition based exclusively on national targets can reproduce a hierarchical model in which central institutions define the public interest while local communities bear the physical consequences.

5. Finch and Recognition of Wider Energy Impacts

A particularly important UK case is R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2024] UKSC 20.

The Supreme Court held that an environmental impact assessment for a proposed oil-extraction project had to consider greenhouse-gas emissions resulting from the eventual combustion of the extracted oil. The Court's decision therefore rejected an artificially narrow approach to environmental consequences.

From a decolonial perspective, Finch is significant because it demonstrates the importance of defining the boundaries of an energy project correctly.

If decision-makers consider only the emissions occurring at the extraction site, they may conceal the wider consequences of the energy commodity. A broader lifecycle approach makes previously invisible effects legally and politically relevant.

Thus:

narrow project boundary → invisible consequences → incomplete justice analysis

whereas:

full lifecycle assessment → visible consequences → more informed decision-making.

Finch does not itself establish a “decolonial” doctrine, but its reasoning can be used to support a broader critique of fragmented energy governance.

6. Cumbria Coal and the Politics of Transition

The litigation concerning the proposed West Cumbria coal mine provides another important example.

In R (Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [2024] EWHC 2349 (Admin), the High Court considered challenges concerning the government's decision-making over the proposed mine.

The case illustrates a central tension in energy transition governance: governments may simultaneously pursue decarbonisation while considering continued fossil-fuel extraction.

A decolonial analysis asks whether transition policy should be understood merely as replacing technologies or whether it should also challenge the economic structures that have historically treated energy resources as commodities.

7. Net-Zero Governance and Democratic Accountability

The Friends of the Earth v BEIS [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin) litigation is also significant. The High Court held that the government's Net Zero Strategy did not comply with the statutory requirements of the Climate Change Act 2008 because the Secretary of State had not adequately demonstrated that the proposals and policies would enable the relevant carbon budgets to be met.

This is relevant to decolonial governance because it demonstrates that climate transition is not purely a matter of political aspiration. Evidence, transparency and accountability matter.

A decolonial approach similarly demands transparency about:

who finances transition projects;

who owns energy infrastructure;

where materials originate;

who receives subsidies;

who bears environmental burdens; and

which communities participate in decision-making.

8. International Energy Projects and UK Responsibility

The decolonial perspective becomes especially important when UK institutions support energy projects outside the UK.

In R (Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Secretary of State for International Trade [2023] EWCA Civ 14, litigation concerned UK Export Finance support for a major liquefied-natural-gas project in Mozambique.

The case raises an important structural question: can a state's climate and development responsibilities be considered separately from the overseas environmental and social consequences of projects it finances?

Although the Court's decision did not create a general decolonial principle, the litigation provides a useful legal context for analysing the relationship between UK finance, overseas energy development, climate impacts and distributive justice.

9. Decolonising Energy Knowledge

Decolonial energy governance also challenges the dominance of purely technical forms of expertise.

Traditional energy policy frequently privileges:

economic modelling + engineering analysis + financial valuation + national statistics.

A decolonial approach seeks to supplement these with local knowledge, community experience, ecological knowledge and historically marginalised perspectives.

This does not mean abandoning scientific evidence. Instead, it recognises that technical expertise answers only some questions. Energy policy also involves questions of land, culture, livelihood, ownership, dignity and political power.

10. Energy Ownership and Community Participation

Another important principle is democratisation of energy ownership.

Community energy, municipal ownership, cooperative generation and local benefit-sharing can distribute the economic benefits of renewable infrastructure more broadly.

The objective is to move from:

centralised ownership → passive consumers

towards:

participatory ownership → active energy citizens.

This is especially relevant where communities host wind farms, solar developments, electricity infrastructure or energy-storage facilities but receive relatively limited economic benefits.

11. The Risk of Green Colonialism

A major criticism addressed by decolonial approaches is the possibility of green colonialism.

Green colonialism occurs when environmental or climate objectives are used to justify the extraction of land, minerals or resources from less powerful communities for the benefit of wealthier populations.

For example, renewable-energy infrastructure may be environmentally beneficial at the global level while imposing substantial local costs.

Consequently, the legal question should not simply be:

“Is this project low carbon?”

It should also be:

“Who controls it, who benefits from it, who bears its burdens, and were affected communities meaningfully involved?”

12. Human Rights and Energy Transition

A decolonial energy transition is closely connected with human-rights principles, particularly participation, property, environmental protection, equality and access to essential services.

Energy poverty provides an important example. If decarbonisation increases household energy costs without adequate protection for vulnerable consumers, the transition may produce new inequalities.

A just transition must therefore combine decarbonisation with affordability and social protection.

13. Importance for UK Energy Law

UK energy law is increasingly characterised by overlapping climate, planning, environmental, consumer-protection and infrastructure obligations.

Cases such as Finch, the Net Zero Strategy litigation, and the Cumbria coal litigation demonstrate that courts can require government to confront the environmental consequences and evidential foundations of energy decisions.

However, UK courts have not developed a standalone doctrine called “decolonial energy law.” The concept is better understood as a critical analytical framework through which existing principles of environmental law, administrative law, climate law, energy justice and human rights can be reconsidered.

14. Conclusion

Decolonial approaches to energy transitions in the United Kingdom require more than replacing fossil fuels with renewable technologies. They require examination of the historical and contemporary power structures governing resources, ownership, finance, land, technology, knowledge and decision-making.

The central objective is a transition that is:

low-carbon + democratic + participatory + distributively fair + historically conscious.

The UK cases discussed above do not expressly establish decolonial legal principles. Nevertheless, Finch [2024] UKSC 20, Friends of the Earth v BEIS [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin), Friends of the Earth v International Trade [2023] EWCA Civ 14, and the Cumbria coal litigation provide useful legal foundations for analysing the informational, environmental, procedural and distributive dimensions of energy transition.

Ultimately, a decolonial approach asks the energy sector to move beyond the simple question of “How do we decarbonise?” and ask the broader question: “How do we decarbonise without reproducing the inequalities, exclusions and extractive relationships that characterised earlier energy systems?”