Unjust transitions? Class experience in Portugal’s coal phase-out and the limits of climate governance

The closure of Portugal's two coal-fired power plants in 2021 marked the largest emissions reduction in the country’s history but directly affected around 450 workers. This paper examines the experiences of workers from the Sines and Pego plants through a Just Transition framework. Drawing on a qualitative case study based on 13 semi-structured interviews, the analysis explores how class experience and identity were disrupted by the transition. The impacts extended beyond economic loss related to the end of jobs or careers, triggering grief, burnout, and loss of social status, particularly among men whose identities were closely tied to industrial labour. The analysis combines Just Transition guidelines with an intersectional understanding of class experience to argue that policy design failed to address not only the governance of the process, but also the self-defining dimensions of work. These gaps undermined the legitimacy of the transition and fuelled resentment toward climate policy; resentment with potential political consequences in both territories. This may have important policy implications: a Just Transition cannot be reduced to compensation and retraining schemes; it must also account for how transitions are experienced, who is seen, and whose voices are heard in deciding what a low-carbon future looks like.