Documents just transition 119 results

"It is widely accepted that the pursuit of economic growth is becoming increasingly infeasible and undesirable, necessitating substantial changes to European economies.
European economic activity in terms of emissions, resource use, pollution and impacts on biodiversity is ecologically unsustainable. In the face of tipping points soon to be reached and cascading, inter-related ecological crises, the impacts of economic activities need to fall rapidly and substantially to avert disaster. It is no longer possible to decouple growth from ecological impacts sufficiently within the required timespan. Furthermore, even disregarding the necessity to reduce ecological impacts, a multitude of reasons – from energy crises to demographic change – are leading many economists to question European growth prospects.
In any case, curbing ecologically damaging practices will be key to addressing the multiple crises Europe is facing. The pursuit of evermore undifferentiated GDP growth will therefore not deliver for working people in terms of wellbeing and social progress. GDP is particularly unsuitable for measuring the benefits of public services and accounting for inequality. Therefore, trade unions should strengthen their collaboration with the growing group of actors calling for a move beyond growth and a focus on well-being.
Public services are key in this, as their collective nature minimises ecological impacts while improving the well-being of more people. Universal basic services provided on a collective basis have substantially smaller ecological footprints than providing for the same needs on an individual basis. Public services can also provide good-quality and meaningful jobs. Universal basic services should be an inalienable part of any just transition, as they are at the core of strong and effective social protection systems. Lastly, focusing on universal quality public services has the added benefit of making economies less reliant on economic growth for securing well-being.
A labour-nature alliance will be indispensable to bringing about a social-ecological transformation beyond growth. Actions of solidarity between environmentalists and trade unionists are thus an important step to a better future. Trade unions can play a unique role in developing narratives showing how a Europe moving beyond GDP and towards redistribution and social justice could improve lives and livelihoods across the continent."

"The central questions and main contextual background explored by this year's issue of Benchmarking are, at their core, fairly straightforward. Europe is at a crossroads, painfully navigating four transitions at once: a (perhaps less than obvious) economic policy transition best exemplified by the debates surrounding the EU economic governance framework (COM(2022) 583 final); a geopolitical transition, increasingly shaped by the ‘open strategic autonomy' debate (Akgüç 2021) and, of course, by the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine; and the two more readily acknowledged green and digital transitions. It is, however, becoming increasingly clear, as explored in greater detail in the following chapters, that these four transitions imply important trade-offs and have significant ramifications for the social dimension of the European project and for the livelihoods of European workers. These consequences are currently being ignored by the principal institutional actors that are shaping them and that, at times, have conflicting priorities.

The current inability on the part of governments and policy-makers, at a national and supranational level, to resolve the tensions inherent to these transitions is a major factor in determining what the following pages of this issue refer to as a ‘polycrisis'. We understand the current conjuncture as a ‘polycrisis' due to the presence of a series of multiple, separate crises happening simultaneously (e.g. a climate crisis, a cost-of-living crisis, a geopolitical crisis, etc.), due to the way in which these separate crises interact with each other (for instance the energy crisis and the climate crisis), and due to the extent to which they thus amplify each other's effects, in particular social and economic effects (the extent to which strained supply chains and externally driven inflationary pressures tend to magnify the shortcomings of current fiscal policies, for instance, as noted in the opening chapter). There is also a growing perception that resolving any of these crises in isolation may be a particularly arduous task and that cumulative responses must be identified.

This polycrisis is intimately linked to the inability of the ruling class to engage with what we identify here as the missing transition: the social transition. This issue of Benchmarking Working Europe engages critically with these four transitions and their effects and posits that only a transformative and ambitious social transition can break the current cycle of crisis after crisis and instead institutionalise what the issue refers to as ‘sustainable resilience'.

The four transitions – and the missing one
We are arguably witnessing four major discernible and disruptive transition processes that are shaking the kaleidoscope of the European project as it is currently still enshrined in the (fragile) constitutional consensus embodied by the Lisbon Treaty. The rather more obvious (but no less challenging) processes are the green and technological transitions. Yet, it is arguable that, most visibly since the suspension of parts of the Stability and Growth Pact, we have also been experiencing an economic policy (including a monetary policy) transition and – in connection with the supply chain shortages caused by Covid‑19 and its aftermath, and more markedly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a geopolitical transition linked to the developing concept of ‘open strategic autonomy'"

"The definition of Just Transition in recent years has been shaped by the political and ideological leanings of multiple stakeholders. Labor movements look at a Just Transition that secures workers' rights and jobs; environmental justice groups include whole communities impacted by fossil fuel in their description; multilateral institutions, investors, and transnational corporations see it through lenses of economics, financial support, and investment. However, a perspective on health is missing in all these approaches. The COVID-19 pandemic has established the importance of health-based planning, making evident the co-dependence of ecological health and human well-being. The debilitating post-pandemic economic crisis has reiterated the interlinkage between economics, public health, and the environment. This document posits that health is the overlapping but missing link between the different movements' dream for Just Transition into an equitable world, and to heal people and the planet damaged by fossil fuels. We need Just Transition that has holistic health systems and accessible healthcare services at its core."

"After a decade of progress, the global energy transition has plateaued amid the global energy crisis and geopolitical volatilities, according to the World Economic Forum's Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2023 report. The Energy Transition Index, which benchmarks 120 countries on their current energy system performance and on the readiness of their enabling environment, finds that while there has been broad progress on clean, sustainable energy, there are emerging challenges to the equity of the transition – just, affordable access to energy and sustained economic development – due to countries shifting their focus to energy security."

"Rapid deployment of renewable energy (RE) is critical to meet rising energy needs and mitigate climate change. The energy infrastructure needed to meet net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions goals will have a large footprint that could impact people and biodiversity, as well as create conflicts that jeopardise investments and slow the clean energy transition. Materials needed for RE generation are also creating a new geography of mining impacts. Scientific assessments have shown the potential to meet the world's RE needs by channeling development in ways that optimise for carbon mitigation while protecting natural ecosystems and supporting equitable transition. Successful navigation of this narrow pathway will require early and careful planning, sourcing, and operation of RE facilities. The G20 policy guidance to the energy and finances sectors must ensure alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and SDGs to enable effective and green transition."

"Trade unions have not yet made climate change a major area of bargaining and negotiation on behalf of their members. Trade-union approaches to climate bargaining have frequently treated climate and environmental issues as non-adversarial and separate from core industrial-relations issues. British labour law does not allow for workplace climate action. In particular, the right to strike is limited to a narrow range of employment issues. Unions can however challenge these constraints through building campaigns which link climate and employment demands together. Workers are directly materially exposed to climate and environmental harms in terms of the effects of physically and environmentally harmful production processes, and the impacts of climate change such as extreme heat. Workers are indirectly exposed through the market effects of the climate and environmental crisis. This includes exposure in the workplace and the labour market to the employment effects of the energy transition and climate-related economic instability and restructuring. Workers' indirect exposures also include cost-of-living pressures such as climate inflationary impacts and energy-price volatility.
There is an umbilical relationship between the precarity of jobs – unsustainable labour practices – and the unsustainable production practices that stand at the foundations of our economy. Trade-union climate campaigns and bargaining models should embed employment security as a key climate and sustainability demand. Workers' political education is a crucial step in developing a climate-bargaining approach. However, to be effective, political-education programmes must develop concrete understanding of the ways in which workers, firms and sectors are exposed to present and future climate impacts and the development of worker-led strategies. An effective response to the climate crisis requires unions to work cooperatively within and across sectors and supply chains. This also requires organising globally across supply chains. Supply-chain mapping – which identifies opportunities for building workers' power across the supply chain – is an important element of building a climate-bargaining strategy. Trade unions need to put climate bargaining at the centre of everything they do. This must include channelling greater resources to researching climate impacts on their sectors and members, and to climate campaigning."

"This paper explores the fiscal implications for countries of global climate mitigation in the medium term. If climate action is unilateral, it might be limited in scope and rely more on subsidies and spending to avert political constraints. This can put fiscal sustainability at risk. Coordinated carbon pricing or other mitigation policy can more effectively put the world on a path to 1.5 to 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, as agreed in Paris in 2015, while helping manage fiscal and political constraints. Coordination could be initiated by large players, such as China, the United States, India, the African Union, and the European Union. The authors find that the implications for fiscal revenues over time are shaped by a combination of rising carbon prices, the gradual erosion of existing fuel tax bases, and possible revenue sharing arrangements. Public spending rises during the transition to build green public infrastructure, promote innovation, and support clean technology deployment, although much of this spending could be more efficiently financed through higher sectoral prices and taxes rather than through the general budget. Countries will also need funds for compensating vulnerable households, industries, and poor countries. With well-designed climate-fiscal policy relying on carbon pricing, global decarbonization will have anything from moderately positive to moderately negative impacts on fiscal balances in high-income countries. For middle and low-income countries, net fiscal impacts are generally positive and significant. Hence, as mitigation strategies improve fiscal balances, they can accommodate development spending needs. Revenue sharing at the global level would make an historical contribution to breaching the financial divide between rich and poor countries."

"In 2024, education and training systems have a ‘unique potential' to build the foundations of equitable, sustainable societies. In the OECD National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering Learners to go Green, 90% of participating systems identified environmental sustainability as a key priority for 2024. There is no trade-off between addressing the biggest challenge facing people and the planet and responding to other external shocks and long-term evolutions, especially since these will only become increasingly interdependent. This implies empowering lifelong learners, institutions and education systems with the agency required to act, today. Building on the OECD's Framework of Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy, survey responses from 36 education systems and international policy analysis, this report explores how education systems can: 1) translate learners' awareness into environmental action; 2) provide learners with experiences to shape the green economy; and 3) position education as a strategic sector for the green transition. By exploring these areas, the report aims to support countries to follow up on the goals established by the 2022 OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education. The report is part of the Education Policy Outlook series—the OECD's analytical observatory of education policy."

"Pourquoi la cause climatique n'est-elle pas embrassée par les classes populaires, alors qu'elles sont infiniment moins responsables et infiniment plus victimes des dégradations environnementales que les catégories aisées ? Parce que la question est mal posée. Face aux partisans du capitalisme vert, qui nous promettent que nous pourrons continuer à jouir sans entraves, grâce aux technologies et au marché, la gauche semble désarmée. Elle a beau clamer que fin du monde et fins de mois sont les deux faces d'un même combat, elle laisse s'installer l'idée que l'écologie est un nouvel ascétisme. Or nous voulons la vie large !
Il faut donc prendre le mal à la racine : s'attaquer frontalement aux inégalités et à l'hyper-concentration des richesses, qui sont le moteur de la hausse continue des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et de la perte de biodiversité. Dénoncer les mythologies libérales de la " croissance verte " et du " découplage ". Faire de la justice climatique une authentique lutte sociale, fédérant les nouveaux damnés de la terre. Soustraire la définition de nos modes de production et de consommation aux forces du marché, pour les soumettre à la délibération démocratique. Développer massivement les services collectifs essentiels, pour mettre fin à l'insécurité de l'existence et réparer la planète. Bref, faire que la vie large ne soit plus le privilège de quelques-uns, mais la réalité de tous.
En traçant une voie à la fois désirable et praticable sans escamoter les difficultés de la transition, ce manifeste donne au combat pour la justice climatique une réelle puissance mobilisatrice."