The Politics of the Low-emission Energy Transition (POLTRANS)
Abstract
The Politics of the Low-emission Energy Transition, POLTRANS, is a network of scholars in Chile and Sweden that use their national contexts and situated case studies to collaborate across disciplines to analyze tensions surrounding the ongoing global transition to a low-emission, yet mineral-intensive, energy system. Formed at ACCESS-2024 in Stockholm, the network studies how both countries are deeply involved and intimately connected through the energy transition, especially how the building of large-scale renewable energy infrastructures requires new rounds of extraction, from lithium to rare earth elements (REEs), with impacts on livelihoods and ecosystems. Focusing on SDG 13—Climate Action, ACCESS-2026 provides a crucial venue to extend and deepen the network, and we will focus on four themes: 1. Global production networks; 2. National discourses and institutional frameworks; 3. Case studies at sites of contestation; 4. Research perspectives and methodologies in studies of energy transitions.
First, as global institutions push towards critical mineral extraction, we will examine the role of Sweden and Chile in global production and consumption networks of renewable energy and how global market demands shape national contexts. Second, we will explore how national frameworks underpinning energy transitions might reinforce domestic injustices and power asymmetries. Third, focusing on extraction sites where the energy transition materializes, we will use participants’ case studies (in Atacama, Biobío, Skåne, Norrland) to develop comparative research designs. Finally, we will reflect on how innovations in materials science, art-based, decolonial, and more-than-human research methods could advance less-extractive and genuinely sustainable breakthroughs.
Key word: Energy
EXPECTATIONS FOR PARTICIPANTS
Our Research Theme emphasizes two-way interaction rather than one-way presentations, while cultivating an inclusive, constructive, and humble attitude to make space for disciplinary backgrounds and shape interdisciplinary conversations. Building from ACCESS-2024, we welcome both new and returning participants to contribute to and develop our four comparative research themes towards concrete collaborations after ACCESS-2026. Anticipating the participation of existing POLTRANS members from ACCESS-2024 and new members, we will share “white papers” on the four comparative themes and convene two video meetings in which newcomers will be introduced to key discussions while sharing their fresh perspectives to shape further development of the four themes. We hope subgroups will emerge to develop the “white papers” for themes 1-3 (keeping theme 4 as cross-cutting). Deliberations will be held on whether to run the themes consecutively in Concepción, or to run shorter parallel tracks to increase concretization. Themes are overlapping, so if one develops theme 2, one could still contribute to theme 3 during and after Concepción. During the physical meeting, we will use our workshop method from 2024 to IDENTIFY, ELABORATE, and COMBINE insights in developing interdisciplinary projects. Reflections will be stimulated by visiting a contested mine operation close to Concepción and possibly an artist/design intervention. To secure activities after Concepción, we will elect a new Steering Committee for POLTRANS, identify funding for research, exchanges, and PhD exchanges, draft an online PhD course, and continue the video meetings we have had every three months since 2024.
Gonzalo Palomo Vélez, Universidad de O'Higgins
Gonzalo Palomo Vélez is Assistant Professor at O’Higgins University and adjunct researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2). Using environmental and evolutionary psychological frameworks, he studies the functional and social motivations that underlie people's environmental actions across multiple behavioural domains, and explores how institutional factors may hinder sustainable decision-making.
Henrik Ernstson, The KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Henrik Ernstson is a Professor and Docent in Political Ecology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, focusing on the socio-material and knowledge politics of urban and infrastructural change. He develops collaborative ethnographic research and a film-based practice with key contributions to urban political ecology, critical geography, and environmental humanities. He has co-edited the special issue “Archives of the Planetary Mine” (Geoforum, 2025, with G. Selgas), the books “Grounding Urban Natures” (MIT Press, 2019, with S. Sörlin) and “Urban Political Ecology in the Anthropo-obscene” (Routledge, 2019, with E. Swyngedouw), alongside the films “The Lindeka” (SVA-AAA, 2023) and “One Table Two Elephants” (CPH:DOX, 2018; both films with J. von Heland).
CONTACT US:
Gonzalo: gonzalo.palomo@uoh.cl
Henrik: ernstson@kth.se