ABSTRACT
Countries, states, and cities around the world have taken up the challenge to develop renewable energy sources, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and decarbonize their infrastructure through large-scale energy transition programs. While decarbonization is an urgent priority for mitigating the impacts of climate change, implementing large-scale decarbonization programs in a just, equitable, and affordable manner has proven to be a daunting challenge in practice. Particularly for low- and middle-income countries, creating pathways to develop affordable, clean power is a major challenge. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the concepts of sociotechnical systems, infrastructure, and affordances as they relate to ongoing struggles for energy and climate justice in Southwest Asia. These concepts offer key insights to understand why decarbonization efforts often generate uneven impacts that benefit some while disadvantaging others. By exploring ongoing struggles for affordable energy and community-based renewable energy technologies, this chapter provides insights into affordances of solar technologies and the possibilities for just decarbonization around the world today.
