#just-transition

#just-transition

In envisioning a green future, European politicians failed to account sufficiently for the social impact of the energy transition. The EU's efforts to engage with and compensate those who stood to lose fell short. Regions and workers reliant on carbon-intensive industries, disadvantaged social groups and poorer countries disproportionately affected by the climate crisis and regressive economic consequences of the transition were all hit. Criticism of these failings is valid, but the EU undeniably backed its commitments with action, putting its money where its mouth was.

The Government has unveiled a national plan to create 400,000 green energy jobs within the next five years, in what ministers say will be one of the most significant workforce transitions in modern British history. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the programme aims to double the number of people working in the UK's low-carbon sector by 2030, with a sharp focus on equipping tradespeople, school leavers, ex-service personnel and workers leaving fossil fuel industries with the skills needed to support the transition to net zero.

As a framing term, just transition offers a critical awareness of the historical context of colonialism and extraction, as well as the baked-in systemic violence of our current systems and the necessary personal transformations required for tangible, meaningful change. Like any term, "just transition" is at risk of being co-opted or sanitized. There is also no consensus on what a just transition is.