This discussion paper, written by Atalía Mejía Brito during a TRAJECTS junior research stay at the African TRAJECTS Hub, University of Cape Town (South Africa), analyses why the energy transition is not equivalent to an economic transition in coal-dependent regions of the Global South. Drawing on the literature on energy transitions, energy justice and green extractivism, it examines coal regions in the Colombian Caribbean, particularly La Jagua de Ibirico and La Guajira, in dialogue with Mpumalanga in South Africa. The paper argues that replacing coal-fired power with renewable energy projects mainly alters the energy mix and regulatory architecture, while leaving intact the extractive logic that structures land use, labour markets, public revenues and socio-ecological relations. 

It discusses how, in both countries, decarbonisation policies risk reproducing enclave economies, new sacrifice zones and forms of climate colonialism when they are not embedded in place-based strategies for territorial economic diversification and social protection. Using the four dimensions of energy justice: distributive, procedural, recognition and restorative, the paper identifies conditions under which energy and economic transitions can be articulated without being conflated. It concludes that a rapid coal phase-out will only be socially just and ecologically sustainable if it is accompanied by robust welfare systems, democratic planning and plural valuation of land, work and care in post-coal futures.