Net-zero transitions for all? Considering applications in Asia

This is the Editorial of the first IGES-initiated Special Feature of the Sustainability Science journal. This Special Feature on Just and Sustainable Transitions in Net-Zero Asia aims to highlight how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across Asia are applying just transition thinking to address pressing environmental challenges, climate injustices, and social inequities. It asks how inclusive and just sustainability pathways may foster a resilient society in this critical world region and avoid recurrent climate injustices that threaten to leave the currently disadvantaged even further behind. These Asia-specific research studies present a variety of settings within which the application of just transition principles is tried and tested. Covering applications across coal phase-out, agriculture, and youth activism among others, these cases from across Asia reiterate caution against a one-size-fits-all approach to designing pathways for inclusive and just transitions in the region.