Just Transition is Social Justice in Action

By Joshua Villalobos
HAPI Scholar | Member, HAPI Bacolod

November 2022, Philippines – I recently attended two events in Luzon, Philippines addressing the concept of Just Transition. I interacted with students, indigenous people, youth activists, climate advocates, workers, and union members and learned what the concept of just transition means to them.

Just transition is a concept that emerged from the labor movement due to the regulation of several environmentally-destructive industries over the past few decades. Due to more stringent policies and regulations, more and more workers are on the verge of losing their jobs and livelihoods.

In today’s context of climate change and climate action, where there should be no future for fossil fuel extraction, exploitation, and expansion in an attempt to decarbonize the global economy, the concept of just transition has been popularized again as the welfare and jobs of workers employed in this industry come into question.

[…] the concept of just transition has been popularized as the welfare and jobs of workers employed in this industry come into question.

Now, the concept of Just Transition is situated in the context of climate change. Just transition was mentioned in the preamble of the Paris Agreement, which states that the right of workers are recognized and should be taken into account.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Just Transition describes the transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy that maximizes the benefits of climate action while minimizing hardships for workers and their communities.

After I asked one worker from an electricity distribution utility what Just Transition means to them, they responded that it means making “no collateral damage” on our way toward decarbonizing the energy industry. Elsewhere, one student in the maritime sector shared the challenges faced by their sector in trying to decarbonize the maritime industry.

A few years ago, experts reached a global consensus on the impacts of climate change and the threats to come if we cannot limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius above the pre-industrial level. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, continuously warming the planet and changing the climate. A 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific authority in the discussion of climate change of the United Nations, entitled The Global Warming warns about the impacts on human and natural ecosystems of the planet at a planetary temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celcius.

With accelerated action to limit the warming of the planet, it is important to minimize the harm caused to marginalized and historically-vulnerable communities.

Ensuring a just transition is ensuring that farmers are not displaced by solar farms, ensuring that workers from the fossil fuel industry can have green and climate jobs in decommissioning their plants, ensuring that inequality is lessened at the very least, in our way towards a carbon-neutral planet.

Young people and humanists should help accelerate just transition because the pathway for mitigating climate change is slimming, and the window of opportunity is closing.

Humanism should be a central lens in pushing for social justice on our way toward decarbonizing the economy because just transition is social justice in action.