On May 21, 2024, Hiroyuki Tsuji, from the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning of the Utrecht University, will give a talk titled “Examining the new coal governance amid the energy transition: the rise of Indian interests in Mozambican coal”.

The event is jointly organized by SocioDigital Lab’s thematic lines 2 – Global Governance and 4 – Regenerative Territories for Carbon Neutrality, and the Iscte’s Master’s in Development Studies (School of Social Sciences) and Master’s in Humanitarian Action (School of Sociology and Public Policy).

With free admittance, the seminar will take place at 15:00 (03:00 PM) at Iscte’s Buildind 4, Room A202.

Abstract

Despite world nations’ pledges to materialise the energy transition, many southern countries have not yet discarded the option of continuing to rely on coal for their development. This situation has strengthened the south-south coal flow and alliances and has created new ways of coal governance, which deserves more scholarly attention. This trend is observed in Tete province, the centre of coal mining in Mozambique. Over the past decade, multinational mining companies have divested from Tete, partly due to the energy transition. Today, the major coal projects are owned by Indian capital, with the aim of fuelling their economic growth. The Mozambican government is also determined to rely on coal to further develop the regional and national economy. Scholars have observed that the coal governance, initially led by multinationals, exacerbated socioeconomic inequality among the population. Amid the consolidation of Indian-Mozambican coal alliances, there is an urgent need to understand how the new coal governance is negotiated, justified, and implemented. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper examines how the Indian mining companies and the Mozambican state co-create a specific form of coal governance in Tete and along the coal transport corridors.