Realizing the energy transition avoids immense harms, but it also imposes significant losses on some agents, given the benefits they can no longer obtain. This book examines what is owed to fossil fuel owners—states and companies—who should leave large amounts of fossil fuel reserves in the ground.

It analyzes which reserves should remain unexploited according to considerations of inter- and intragenerational justice, taking into account the relevance of equality, historical production, needs, and efficiency. It then evaluates whether transitional measures such as financial compensation or exemptions from new rules are justified. After discussing the most important failing arguments, including those based on libertarian values, non-compliance of others, and feasibility, it focuses on the emerging concept of legitimate expectations and argues that, in some cases, expectations about future production benefits provide grounds for limited claims.

Lazou clarifies why achieving a just transition requires considering not only the claims of those who are advantaged by it but also of those who are disadvantaged by it.