‘Rage into action’: from carbon democracy to climate democracy?

ABSTRACT Overcoming fossil fuel dependence entails overcoming the constraints of ‘carbon democracy’. Transition to decarbonized society poses a profound democratic question, of whether the fossil fuel sector has the right to determine the planet’s climate future. With this, energy transitions to address climate change are transformed into much deeper democratic transitions. This is already in evidence, as new claims are generated, for ‘climate justice’, ‘energy democracy’, ‘new green deals’, ‘de-growth’, and more. The imperatives for transition, and the in-built barriers to it, pose real questions for how society and politics are understood. How far does climate transition force new models of ‘climate democracy’ onto the table? Theory-policy linkages and concrete case studies are needed to explore the dynamics of democracy under transition, and to understand shared barriers and alternatives. This introductory article draws out perspectives on these themes in the Special Issue, ‘From Carbon Democracy to Climate Democracy’.