Territorial Energy Sustainability: A Framework for Just Energy Transitions in Latin America’s Extractive Economies—The Case of Colombia

Colombia condenses a paradox common across Latin America’s extractive economies: one of the region’s cleanest electricity matrices—close to 60% of installed capacity is hydropower—coexists with large-scale coal and oil exports, while renewable potential concentrates in ethnic and peasant territories that remain energy-poor. Although the country has enacted an ambitious just-transition framework, conflicts persist. This study asks which epistemological and ontological factors constrain or enable that transition. Using an interpretive-critical qualitative design, it triangulates four evidentiary pillars: critical discourse analysis of policy instruments, a structured critical review of the academic and policy literature, six megaproject case studies, and ten participatory workshops with 259 territorial actors across nine departments. Six recurrent, cross-case findings emerge: epistemological asymmetry, ontological irreducibility of territory, participation reduced to procedure, fragmented governance, the Caribbean territorial paradox (La Guajira combines the country’s highest renewable potential with its lowest electricity coverage), and unresolved fiscal dependence on hydrocarbons. The study’s novelty is Territorial Energy Sustainability (SET), a six-condition framework that articulates sustainability-transitions theory with Latin American critical thought and operationalizes it into five levels of policy intervention, offering a transferable framework for energy-exporting countries of the Global South pursuing transitions that transform rather than reproduce inequality.