During a month-long research trip investigating renewable energy and hydrogen transitions in Tasmania and Gippsland, PD  Dr Stefanie Baasch was invited by Jessica Reeves and her colleagues at Federation University Gippsland, Victoria, to share her findings on sociotechnical imaginaries and energy justice in Germany (Bremen) and Australia (Tasmania). These findings were drawn from the BMFTR-funded “hyBit - Hydrogen for Bremen's Industrial Transformation” (2022-2026) and further projects with her research group on Social-Ecological Governance and Justice at artec Sustainability Research Center.

The ensuing dynamic, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary discourse – bringing together government representatives, community groups, wind farm proponents, civil society actors, and academics at the Federation University – elucidated a pivotal insight: a shared understanding that just transitions require more than attention to well-recognized local economic dimensions, such as job transitions. This finding, reinforced through further discussions with diverse stakeholders in both Tasmania and Gippsland, underscores the need for a more profound and comprehensive focus on justice in social-ecological transformation processes as well as in multi-scale governance.

These fruitful exchanges also mark the beginning of collaborative initiatives between academic and regional actors within the European International Urban and Regional Cooperation Australasian Network (EU-IURC AA). In this network, Bremen and Gippsland are now working together in the Just Transitions and Low Carbon Technology working group, fostering knowledge exchange and joint research to advance just and sustainable energy transition across the continents.