The politics of energy transition has become a prominent field of study within international relations and global environmental politics. Yet the effort to ground “actually existing” transition politics has never been more urgent, as scholars grapple with convoluted theoretical assumptions and framings. In particular, the analysis of transition politics is too readily equated with electoral outcomes and power distribution, marginalising inquiries into the deeper structural shifts that shape transition politics. To address this ontological gap, this paper advances the concept of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD), which foregrounds the nature of green and energy transition as a complex, interdependent system - one that combines and interconnects different social formations - and situates it as an integral part of capitalist transformation, involving competition, conflict, and cooperation among social class forces. In this framing, actually existing transition politics refers to the reorganisation of political contestation and class conflict reconnecting developing countries and advanced capitalist countries in various ways. The analytical utility of UCD, when applied to transition politics, lies in its capacity to encourage scholars to make sense of the interconnections between different forms of capitalism, different kinds of crises related to energy and finance, and social class forces, whilst critically challenging the monocausal analyses that continue to dominate the field.
