Exploring intersectional energy justice based on the case of planned hard coal phase-out in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland

Matters of justice have been increasingly recognized as important in low-carbon energy transitions. Energy justice research has acknowledged that energy transitions will have far-reaching consequences for workforces in carbon-intensive industries and also beyond this group. Although energy justice studies have started to take on board the concept of intersectionality, this field of research remains understudied. There is a need for explorations of how intersectionality can be conceptually integrated into the analytical framework of energy justice and for more empirical analyses that demonstrate how this can be done in practice. This paper attempts to address this gap by re-formulating the energy justice framework into an intersectional energy justice framework. It draws on the concepts of structural, political, and representational intersectionality to make the analysis of intersecting power relations in energy transitions more nuanced. This conceptual framework is applied to the empirical analysis of the planned hard coal phase-out in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. The results of 20 semi-structured stakeholder interviews demonstrate that, while gender, age, and economic status as categories of difference are noted, groups and actors with intersecting identities receive little attention. It is argued that the interplay of discursive and political dimensions may reinforce intersecting inequalities.