What do we talk about when we talk about justice in Colombia's Just Transition Roadmap?

An integrated justice framework to analyze the Colombian Just Transition

Abstract

The term “just transition” is widely used, yet what counts as just remains contested. Building on scholarly contributions, this paper proposes an integrated framework combining temporal and spatial dimensions with the four tenets of justice: distributional, procedural, recognition, and restorative. Applied to Colombia’s Just Transition Roadmap, the framework reveals a predominant focus on distributive and recognition justice, particularly at the national scale and in relation to the country’s international economic position. In contrast, procedural and restorative justice receive less attention, with an overall emphasis on economic and technological aspects. Nonetheless, the inclusion of social measures reflects progress in addressing energy poverty and improving relations between communities and the energy system. The use of the proposed framework allowed for the identification of underlying tensions and broader implications that, although often treated as disconnected, significantly shape the trajectory of energy policy design and implementation.