Climate Minilateralism in the Global South: Innovative Cooperation for Energy Transition and Decarbonization Among Emerging and Middle Powers

The limits of the traditional multilateral climate cooperation in recent years have created growing scholarly and practical interest in new and innovative forms of cooperation, such as climate minilateralism. This chapter formulates the concept of climate minilateralism in the Global South to empirically explore the effectiveness and implications of minilateral initiatives relevant for energy transition and decarbonization in emerging and middle powers of the Global South, some of them leaders in technological innovation. It argues that climate minilaterals are potentially effective vehicles for driving energy transition and decarbonization because of their focus and flexibility in addressing region-specific challenges, especially energy security, climate adaptation, infrastructure development and trade. However, their implementation holds significant politico-economic implications for climate governance, industrial competitiveness and geopolitical power balance. The effectiveness of climate minilaterals will be enhanced by maintaining political momentum through bridging information asymmetries, improving financing, managing geopolitical tensions and mainstreaming justice and inclusivity. This chapter illustrates this argument using the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) that is currently implemented in South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal, as well as the growing carbon initiatives among the Gulf and African states.