Energy Justice in Crisis: Exploring Humanitarian Energy Interventions in Rohingya Refugee Camps

This paper interrogates energy access in the Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar through the lens of energy justice. While humanitarian energy interventions promote renewable technologies like solar and LPG to mitigate ecological harm and enhance protection, they often overlook refugees’ lived realities, agency, and systemic inequities. Drawing on qualitative analysis of institutional reports and refugee narratives, the study critically examines how energy practices intersect with health, gender, and economic survival. It finds that despite large-scale energy distributions, refugees face chronic gaps between aid provisions and actual needs, leading to vibrant informal energy markets and hybrid coping strategies. Applying the principles of distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, the research reveals how techno-centric and top-down models fail to create equitable outcomes. Instead, refugee-led innovations in solar sharing and informal electricity markets challenge prevailing narratives of dependency. By synthesizing humanitarian energy frameworks with energy justice theory, this study argues for participatory, culturally sensitive interventions that position energy as a catalyst for dignity, autonomy, and resilience. It concludes by proposing a three-tiered energy approach—survival; dignity; and prosperity tier—thus, reimagines energy not as a luxury but as a fundamental right critical to rebuilding lives in displacement contexts.