Sustainable Energy for Some? Value Creation and Distribution in the Energy Transition

Energy transitions are expected to redistribute economic benefits to new actors, from local communities to countries with renewable resources. My research explores the classic political economy question of who benefits, looking at the role of communities, states, and firms. At the community level, I look at attitudes towards energy transitions in Jordan, a lower-middle income country rapidly transitioning to renewables with attractive jobs in this industry. Despite the top-down nature of energy policymaking in the authoritarian political context, household surveys reveal that people are highly supportive of energy transitions, especially if they perceive renewables as benefitting their communities. However, there are tensions between countries and firms that make it difficult for countries to see the kinds of local benefits present in Jordan in many other contexts. I argue that the transfer of green technologies promised in the Paris Agreement is not materializing at a large scale, des