Call for papers: Energy Transition & Energy Poverty: Energy Policy Challenges in the Times of Geopolitical Fragmentation

With the war and geopolitical tensions in the Europe and Middle East and the new administration in the US that focuses on the America First policy, it has become a lot more challenging to build and sustain a consensus on vital socio-economic issues including the energy transition and energy poverty. While European governments are focused on free trade, security challenges and channelling resources towards defence, the US administration is imposing tariffs and has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, with potential consequences for global welfare. In this context, the global issue of energy transition and energy poverty remains and needs further research on the consequences of trade redirections and geopolitical fragmentation. 

As one of the most tragic types of poverty, energy poverty is mainly manifested by the inaccessibility and unaffordability of energy, which continues to cause significant negative impacts on the environment, economic growth, and people’s welfare. The impact of energy poverty on ecosystems is mainly caused by energy collection and combustion. The supply of traditional solid fuels is at the cost of destroying local vegetation and the ecological environment, which will inevitably affect the quality of land and water, causing irreversible environmental damage, and the impact of combustion exhaust on atmospheric quality is unmanageable. In addition, traditional collection methods will squeeze normal working hours and reduce work efficiency, reduce economic income, aggravate the gap between the rich and the poor, hinder the performance of poverty alleviation, and prevent healthy economic growth. In terms of livelihoods and welfare, energy-self-sufficient participants include all family members due to the weak capacity of energy-poor areas, which can crowd out children’s education and affect gender roles in society. At the same time, harmful emissions from solid fuel combustion will directly endanger users’ health. Therefore, energy poverty has become one of this century’s most serious global problems. If it is not addressed through effective energy transition policies will continue to socio-economic problems and greatly hinder global sustainable development.

There is also heterogeneity in the energy challenges and potential crises faced by the so-called Advanced North and Global South in the context of geopolitical fragmentation. Countries situated in the North have greater infrastructure coverage and more equitable access to modern energy sources, linked to affordability, new technologies and energy efficiency issues. However, in addition to energy inefficiency and unaffordability issues, Global South have more serious problems with infrastructure coverage and access to electricity and other clean fuels. Most rural areas lacking modern energy infrastructure are primarily located in the Global South, where the use of traditional biomass dominates due to the lack of power plants, transmission lines, and underground pipelines to transport natural gas. They have limited access to electricity and other clean fuels, resulting in little access to modern and clean energy sources. These countries rely heavily on traditional biomass energy such as wood fuel, charcoal, crop residues, wood pellets, etc. Because of the complexity of their energy poverty, Global South is facing greater resistance and challenges to eradicating energy poverty and facilitating energy transition. Effectively addressing energy poverty and energy transition in the Global South through optimal energy policies was already challenging, this difficulty is exacerbated by the global geopolitical fragmentation and rising security concerns.

Our limited understanding of addressing energy poverty and achieving successful energy transition in the context of geopolitical fragmentation, nationalism and global security challenges limits our ability to formulate appropriate energy policies, resulting in an inability to address both energy poverty and energy transition. Therefore, this special issue and call for papers welcome scientific studies and robust empirical evidence on the optimal energy policy and strategy that may deal with both issues effectively. This will contribute to the reduction of global energy poverty and deliver energy transition.

The contributions to this call and special issue are expected to yield seminal findings in the field of economic policy, specifically in the areas of policymaking for energy transition and energy poverty, which will have a profound impact on a wide range of stakeholders, including economic, public, energy and environmental policymakers.

Guest editors:

• Prof. Carlo Andrea Bollino, University of Perugia (Perugia) & LUISS (Rome), Italy;(Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Energy Finance)
• Dr. Muhammad Ali Nasir, University of Leeds & University of Cambridge, United Kingdom;(Energy Economics, Macroeconomics, Energy Finance, Environmental Economics, Economic Policy)

Special issue information:

These SI topics include, but are not limited to:

• Energy policy formulation and energy poverty in the context of geopolitical fragmentation
• Geopolitical conflicts, energy policy and energy poverty
• Energy trade to reduce energy poverty in times of Trade-war
• Energy transition in countries engaging in conflicts and the new pattern of global energy development
• Net-zero energy policy, energy transition and energy poverty
• Role of economic policy in energy poverty reduction and just transition in the context of geopolitics
• Energy, transition poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals and geopolitical tensions
• Impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on energy poverty, energy transition and optimal policy
• Impacts of Russia-Ukraine conflict on energy markets and energy poverty
• Energy policy response to conflicts
• Setting and achieving energy poverty reduction targets in the Global South without support from the Global North
• Impact of energy policy on productivity and energy transition
• Impact of diversity on optional energy policy in the context of geopolitics
• Carbon tax policy, trade war and energy transition
• Energy Poverty in the Global South under carbon neutrality targets
• European energy security and energy transition Post-Russia and Ukraine war
• Indirect carbon tax policies for energy transition and poverty reduction in the context of geopolitical tensions
• Russia-Ukraine war and implication for energy poverty and energy transition

Manuscript submission information:

You are invited to submit your manuscript now, to 31 March 2026. Any questions about the special issue can be directed to the Executive Guest Editor Dr. Bollino (carloandrea.bollino@unipg.it).

The journal’s submission platform (Editorial Manager®) will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of “VSI: Energy Geopolitical Fragmentation” when submitting your manuscript online on the submission platform.