GREEN TRANSITION, UNEQUAL BURDENS: GENDER INEQUALITY AND THE JUSTICE GAP IN ASEAN
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2026-08-04Downloads
Abstract
The green transition is expected to reduce environmental burdens and widen social justice, yet these gains do not necessarily advance together. This study examines whether renewable-energy progress across ASEAN has been accompanied by comparable improvements in environmental conditions and gender equality. Using a comparative longitudinal design, country-level data from Our World in Data for 2016–2023 were analyzed in Python through Sen’s slope estimation, standardized directional trends, and cross-country trajectory mapping. The results reveal an asynchronous green transition, in which energy, environmental, and gender trajectories move at substantially different speeds. Malaysia demonstrates the most relatively aligned trajectory, whereas Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, and Thailand record renewable-energy progress without comparable improvements in PM2.5 exposure. Gender inequality improves across the observed countries, but its pace varies considerably and does not consistently correspond with either renewable-energy growth or environmental improvement. These findings challenge the assumption that technological progress naturally translates into broader justice outcomes. This study conceptualizes such divergence as the green transition–justice gap: the distance between progress in energy transformation and its translation into environmental and gender-justice outcomes. The findings reposition law and institutions as critical mechanisms for connecting technological change with the distribution of environmental and social benefits. For ASEAN, the quality of green transition should therefore be judged not only by how rapidly energy systems become greener, but by how consistently that progress reduces environmental burdens and advances social justice.
Keywords:
Energy Justice Environmental Justice Gender Inequality Green Transition Just TransitionReferences
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Copyright (c) 2026 Fidela Dzatadini Wahyudi, Si Yusuf Al Hafiz, Muhamad Irwan, Angger Dimas Bayu Sadewo
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