India and Indonesia are among the world’s largest, most populous countries. Indonesia is the largest exporter of coal, and India the second largest producer and consumer. Under worsening climate change, both countries are attempting to move away from coal, and towards a greener energy future of solar, wind, hydropower, and biofuels, etc.  

Professor Sud will research the little understood societal consequences of energy transition in these fossil fuel hotspots. For this, she will qualitatively investigate key institutions, actors and processes that are entwined with the energy landscape. She will study the changing nature of the coal-powered state as it makes space for private, market actors in green energy. Further, as state-dominated coal mines and power plants are set to be replaced by green installations, she will probe political implications.  

The study is multi-sited and multi-scalar. She will explore the national policy and processes of green transition as well as locally sited questions such as changing livelihood dynamics, and contested access to land and water for renewables. The methodology will cover textual sources, stakeholder interviews, and ethnographic research at sites of transition. The layered data that is generated will offer unique insights into societal change amid climate change. By comparing, contrasting, and studying two highly consequential cases together, the study will comment on a worldwide phenomenon from the vantage of the Global South.  

The funding was awarded by the University’s John Fell fund.