Kevin Lo co-authored Just Transition: A Conceptual Review (Energy Research & Social Science, 2021) with Xinxin Wang, a widely cited overview of the field. The article maps the literature around five themes. It traces the concept back to its origins in protecting workers affected by the shift towards less environmentally harmful industry, and follows it into more recent territory: just transition as a theory of socio-technical change, as a governance strategy, as a set of justice dimensions, and as a matter of public perception.
In this talk, Dr Lo will review developments over the past five years, with particular attention to energy development, energy minerals and climate change mitigation. He will discuss what these developments mean for the gaps in just transition literature, research and practice.
Presenter: Dr Kevin Lo, Hong Kong Baptist University

Discussant: Professor Ola Mestad, University of Oslo

Ola Mestad has extensive experience in sustainable investment and responsible business conduct. He has chaired the Ethics Council of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, Norway's National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the committee that drafted the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven). Partly raised in Finnmark in northern Norway, he has a particular interest in mining and its impact on Indigenous peoples, including the Sámi, and local communities. He will discuss what the just transition concept means for sustainable finance.
Kevin Lo (Associate Professor of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University) is a visiting scholar with FRONTIERS (Frontiers of natural resource and sustainability governance for a just energy transition), a research project funded by the Carlsberg Foundation's Semper Ardens: Accomplish grant and led by Professor Karin Buhmann, Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS. Ola Mestad is a Professor (emeritus) at the Department of Law, University of Oslo, and a member of the FRONTIERS project's Advisory Board.
Programme:
15:00-15.30 Arrival and coffee
15:30-15.45 Welcome and opening remarks by Dorte Salskov-Iversen Head of the Department of Management, Society and Communication at CBS
15:45-16:15 Talk by Kevin Lo
16:15-16:30 Discussion by Ola Mestad
16:30-16:45 Q&A moderated by Professor Karin Buhmann and Dr Dorothee Nussbruch, FRONTIERS project
16:45-17:30 Reception with drinks and snacks
The event is organised by Green Office at CBS.