Uncertain transitions: Affects in the coal supply chain from Colombia to Poland

Abstract

We examine the dynamic affective responses along the cross-Atlantic coal supply chain from Colombia to Poland in the context of changing conditions triggered by the war in Ukraine following Russia's invasion in February 2022. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and a review of press releases and documents, our analysis focuses on the affects, emotions, social relations, and tensions resulting from people's everyday interactions with coal. We explore how unexpected events altered these interactions and how affective responses can shed light on the dynamic processes involved in the energy transition from coal. We argue that the transition is a non-linear process characterized by the diverse ways in which actors along coal supply chains experience, conceptualize, and represent it. In the context of these shifting dynamics, coal emerges as an ambiguous resource, viewed both as an outdated and polluting energy source that dispossesses Indigenous people and contributes to global warming and as a familiar and reliable fuel that provides a sense of security, maintains social relations, and remains an integral component of the global energy matrix. We conclude that a just energy transition from coal requires accounting for its complexity along supply chains, acknowledging the affective dimension of processes of change and continuity, and understanding the power dynamics between corporate agents, the state, and communities at extraction and consumption sites.