Climate & environment, explained.
An oil well pumps in the foreground, wind turbines spin behind (Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The clean-energy transition has its own hierarchies and the Global South sees risks in trading fossil dependence for green dependence.
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Petrostates, electrostates and the Global South’s climate bindPetrostates, electrostates and the Global South’s climate bind
The phrase dominating climate diplomacy of late has been the divide between “petrostates” and “electrostates”. The former draw power from fossil fuels, while the latter derive influence from the technologies of electrification: solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, grids, critical minerals and the standards that govern them.
It is a tidy frame, which partly explains its appeal. Its proponents have even cast it as the next Cold War (Opens in new window), or an eco-ideological war (Opens in new window).
Yet for much of the Global South, the analogy feels too clean for a far messier reality.
The frame does capture something real. At the COP30 global climate change negotiations in Belém, the fight over a roadmap (Opens in new window) to transition away from fossil fuels exposed a harder truth about the climate process: energy transition is also a struggle over security, rents and geopolitical leverage. The recent disruption around the Strait of Hormuz (Opens in new window) is a reminder that fossil-fuel dependence leaves importing states exposed to chokepoints and price shocks.
But the answer is not as simple as moving from petrostates to electrostates. The clean-energy transition brings its own dependencies (Opens in new window), especially around critical minerals, batteries, manufacturing capacity and the rules governing supply chains.
For the Global South, many countries do not sit comfortably on either side. Some export fossil fuels, some import them, some mine the minerals needed for clean technology, some are vulnerable to carbon border taxes, and many are being asked to decarbonise while still building basic infrastructure. The energy transition may be green, yet it is still a transition structured by capital, technology, debt and power.
A solar panel can be cheap and eco-friendly, but still sit inside an unequal system.
India is the case in point. It’s not a petrostate, and neither does its power come from exporting fossil fuels. Its dilemma is development dependence on fossil energy, especially coal, while it tries to build the industries of the electric age. India’s updated climate targets (Opens in new window) commit to reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels. India also aims to achieve about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, with technology transfer and low-cost finance explicitly part of the bargain.
But India also resists any climate diplomacy that turns fossil fuel phaseout into a universal instruction detached from the idea of being “just” – whether on finance, technology and especially historical responsibility.
Diu solar farm, India (Nirmal Rajendharkumar/Unsplash)
The Pacific small island states read the same debate with far less patience. For them, petrostates are not merely incumbents defending old rents. They are actors whose delay carries existential consequences. The difference between 1.5 degrees and a hotter world is measured in territory, freshwater, culture and statehood. Electrostates may provide cheaper solar panels and batteries, but technology alone does not answer the island demand for legal responsibility, loss and damage finance, and a faster end to fossil fuel expansion.
Vanuatu’s leadership (Opens in new window) on the International Court of Justice climate advisory opinion was a window in understanding these dynamics at play. The May 2026 UN General Assembly vote backing the opinion became a test of climate responsibility. It passed overwhelmingly, 141 to 8, with 28 abstentions. (Opens in new window) The United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia opposed it. India abstained. For Pacific Island states, the vote strengthened the case for treating climate action as a matter of legal obligation, not only voluntary diplomacy. For India, abstention reflected caution about hardening legal duties without equally hardening finance, technology transfer and differentiation.
While the two claims may seem to pull climate diplomacy in different directions, they converge on the same demand. Both are equity arguments – one for development space, one for survival.
This is where the petrostate–electrostate debate finds its Global South test. Developing countries will not simply choose between yesterday’s fossil powers and tomorrow’s electric powers. Many fear being trapped by both: first by fossil dependence, then by green dependence on imported technologies, concentrated supply chains, expensive capital and trade rules written elsewhere. A solar panel can be cheap and eco-friendly, but still sit inside an unequal system.
This is also why climate diplomacy is unlikely to return to the comfort of a single grand bargain. The next phase will be fought across smaller coalitions, legal forums, trade rules, finance negotiations and technology partnerships.
The electric age may be cleaner than the fossil one. But unless finance, technology, supply chains and responsibility are distributed more evenly, it may reproduce old inequalities in greener form.
About the author
Sharon Sarah Thawaney
Sharon Sarah Thawaney works in the Office of the Vice President (Development Studies) at Oserver Research Foundation, India.
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