One of the most pressing challenges in sustainability governance today is to simultaneously accelerate transformative change (speed), ensure fairness and inclusiveness (justice), and achieve integrated environmental outcomes rather than fragmented, sector-specific goals (environmental). This creates a speed-justice-environment trilemma that challenges existing governance structures and processes.
Democratic governments around the world are increasingly introducing fast-track regulations to accelerate the development of renewable energy and critical mineral infrastructure. While these measures may mitigate climate change, they may also exacerbate social inequalities and undermine environmental protection.
For example, infrastructure for energy transition often triggers local justice conflicts and impacts the local environment, while delayed action exacerbates climate change, with resulting impacts on inter- and intragenerational justice. Speed is thus intertwined with both the decline and expansion of justice and environmental impacts across spatial (local-global) and temporal (intra- and intergenerational) scales.
JustFast conducts a worldwide comparative study of fast-track regulations introduced in democratic countries to accelerate the energy transition, followed by in-depth case studies in six countries: Switzerland, Sweden, the USA, New Zealand, India, and Peru. Focusing on renewable energy and critical mineral infrastructure, the project investigates how fast-track regulations reshape governance processes and the relationships between speed, justice, and environmental protection. Combining comparative analysis with a transdisciplinary research design involving diverse stakeholders, JustFast identifies mechanisms underlying trade-offs and synergies and develops new theoretical insights into governing accelerated sustainability transitions.
JustFast is directed by Elke Kellner. The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 101301878).
