Background

The Just Transition Knowledge Network (JETNET), an initiative of the Just Transition Research Centre at IIT Kanpur, invites national and international participants to its Annual Conference 2026.

As countries accelerate their transition toward low-carbon development, extractive regions stand at a critical juncture. The growing policy emphasis on mine and power plant closures, repurposing of fossil-fuel-based infrastructures and regional economic restructuring presents both complex challenges and transformative opportunities. For instance, in India, this is underscored by national efforts toward the simultaneous and sustainable closure of coal mines, alongside the need to ensure long-term socio-economic and ecological resilience in affected regions.

At the same time, global climate discourse increasingly recognises that transitions must be just, inclusive, and context-specific, particularly in the Global South where development imperatives, livelihoods, and resource dependencies intersect.

This international conference aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, industry, and communities to generate actionable, interdisciplinary knowledge on sustainable transitions in extractive regions. It places a special emphasis on:

• Mine closure and repurposing pathways
• Land, ecological, and earth systems transitions
• Regional development and economic diversification
• Policy-relevant research that can inform national strategies and global climate processes

The conference seeks to bridge research, policy, and practice, fostering dialogue that contributes to ongoing national priorities and informs broader international conversations on just transitions.

Objectives

This year’s conference will:

• Build a global research cohort working on extractive transitions, land systems, and just transitions
• Create a platform for high-quality academic and field-based insights on mine closure, repurposing, and regional development
• Facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, particularly in the context of ongoing coal transition efforts
• Contribute to policy-relevant discourse by generating insights that can inform national strategies and global climate dialogues
• Advance interdisciplinary approaches, integrating geoscience, spatial technologies (GIS, remote sensing), and socio-economic research

Call for Abstracts

We invite abstracts (200-350 words) that clearly outline the research question, methodology, and key findings or arguments.

Submissions are open to:

• Scholars and early-career researchers
• Civil society, unions, and grassroots representatives
• Policy practitioners, analysts, and consultants
• Entrepreneurs and industry professionals
• Public sector professionals

Contributors may be affiliated with universities, research institutions, government bodies, civil society organisations, international organisations, or public/private sector entities.

Themes

Sectoral emphasis on

• Energy and power
• Transportation
• Mineral-based, heavy, extractive industries and critical minerals
• Tourism, construction and buildings
• Textile and manufacturing
• Waste and circular economy
• Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)

Guiding themes

• Extractive economies, mine closure, and regional transitions
• Land, environment and earth systems
• Transition pathways: policy, technology and finance
• People and institutions for just transitions

Submission Types

• Poster
• Research Paper
• Viewpoint/Perspective
• Review Paper
• Case Studies / Best Practices

Conference Proceedings

Our effort is to provide participants with an opportunity to contribute to globally visible, peer-reviewed knowledge outputs in the field of just transitions and sustainable development.

Selected papers from the conference will be published in a proceedings volume as part of the Scopus-indexed Springer series Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, subject to the review process of the organizers and the publisher. 

For publishing full papers,

• Articles must be original and not submitted elsewhere
• Articles must be a minimum of 6,000 words, excluding references
• Authors must explicitly declare any use of AI at any stage of manuscript preparation
• At least one of the authors should have a PhD from a reputed institution
• Research scholars can submit by collaborating with their guides
• Industry experts can contribute, too, provided they have at least 15 years of industry experience

Detailed CFP -  https://easychair.org/cfp/jetnet2026

Submission portal -  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=jetnetannualconferen0

Conference site - https://jetnet.net.in/jtac.php

Keynote speakers

• Prof. Benjamin Sovacool (Professor of Energy Policy, University of Sussex; Professor of Earth and Environment, Boston University)
• Prof. Dimitris Stevis (Professor Department of Political Science, Center for Environmental Justice, College of Liberal Arts, Colorado State University)

International Advisory Board

• Prof. Pradip Swarnakar (Convenor) (Professor and Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; Founder, Climate and Energy Policy Research Lab (CEPRL); Founder, Just Transition Research Centre (JTRC), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT)
• Prof. Arun Kumar Sharma (Prof. of Sociology (Retd.), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur)
• Prof. Jeffrey Broadbent (Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota)
• Prof. Dimitris Stevis (Professor, Department of Political Science, Center for Environmental Justice, College of Liberal Arts, Colorado State University)
• Prof. James Goodman (Professor and Head, School of Communication; Founding Director, Climate, Society, and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC), University of Technology Sydney)
• Prof. Mark Stoddart (Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Venue

The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula, Goa, India - 403 004

For queries,

Email us at jtrc@iitk.ac.in