A Just Transition
“The realisation that it is not just global warming that we are dealing with, but global warming in an unequal and unjust world, has yet to sink in.”
- UN climate policy expert Thiagarajan Jayaraman
“Just Transition” is a growing movement that outlines not only a set of principles for environmental justice (link to Climate Justice page), but—crucially—the means by which they are achieved, incorporating previously overlooked social justice elements into the campaign. The process of creating a fairer world for all (our natural environment and all living things, as well as its people) is therefore deemed as important as the ideology: to seed a healthy future, justice must be practiced in every stage of implementation. It can’t come at the cost of others’ well-being, or else it won’t be positive reformation.
Moving from an extractive to a regenerative economy (link to Green New Deal page) would take big change. Yet it is unavoidable. What is not unavoidable, however, is that the move be equitable; mindful of people’s varying levels of need and/or disadvantage. A just transition towards climate justice (link to Climate Justice page) requires that those most vulnerable to losses amidst upheaval are cared for and appropriately compensated, while those worse affected by the current climate and pollution crises, such as frontline workers and fence-line communities, should themselves be granted the authority to frame policies at a local level. It is grassroots progress, not more top-down influence, that has the power to truly benefit everyone, instead of a minority of elites—the global “mainstream”—as this raises the voices of those previously unheard (and under-served).
Righting past wrongs
For centuries, the norm has been to degrade Earth’s finite resources to no end but infinite, illogical growth (link to Growth Based Economies page). Our profit-driven, globalised industrial economy was the brainchild of white supremacist and patriarchal mindsets, exported across the world through imperial pursuits abroad and gaining might via extracted wealth (link to Colonialism & Extractivism page). This entitled attitude of ownership—labelled “Manifest Destiny”, to frame its brutal methods as noble—has long undermined human rights (link to Human Rights page), but also increasingly defiled the laws and needs of nature (link to Ecocide page) to breaking point.
Despite intentions, this privileged outlook has influenced some areas of activism too (link to What is Justice? page), with climate campaigners continually failing to recognise the intersectional elements of oppression (link to Intersectionality page) likewise important to this issue (link to MAPA page). And these inequalities remain prohibitive of widespread justice unless redressed as part of the movement. We can’t, for example, expect the same commitments of everyone, nor criticise workers threatened with job loss and poverty (link to Working Class Environmentalism) if they lose their carbon-intensive factory job. The current system is set up for them to fail, and that needs amending in any policy reforms.
With close ties to the Civil Rights movement, this restructured model of environmental justice is a response to marginalised communities’ struggles with environmental racism (link to Environmental Racism page), wherein low-income communities, people of colour, and indigenous peoples (link to Indigeneity page) are disproportionately exposed (link to What do we Mean by Disproportionate? page) to the hazards of industry and production.
The difference between Just Transition ideology and previous forms of environmentalism is that it deliberately seeks to expose and subvert unconscious biases, inviting widespread participation in order to redress the automatic whitewashing of issues. If we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, then achieving justice must be an inclusive set of actions, not a crude overhaul of the past; the end justifying harmful means.
What Change Looks Like
Climate justice would see production and consumption transition into waste-free models (link to Waste & Consumerism page), replacing growth capitalism with holistic enterprise (link to Circular Economies page) and self-sovereignty (link to Self-Sovereignty page), with localised supply chains (link to Localisation page) and community land rights (link to Land Rights page).
Its key principles are listed below.
Just Transition Principles:
1. Workers, community residents, and Indigenous Peoples around the world have a fundamental human right to clean air, water, land, and food in their workplaces, homes and environment.
2. There is no contradiction among simultaneously creating sustainable development, having a healthy economy and maintaining a clean and safe environment.
3. Liberalisation of environmental, health and labor laws and corporate globalisation – know no borders. Therefore, solutions call for local, regional, national, and global solidarity.
4. The development of fair economic, trade, health and safety and environmental policies must include both the frontline workers and fence-line communities most affected by pollution, ecological damage and economic restructuring
5. The costs of achieving sustainable development, a healthy economy and clean environment should not be borne by current or future victims of environmental and economic injustices and unfair free trade policies.
6. Workers and community residents have the right to challenge any entity that commits economic and/or environmental injustices. These entities include governments, the military, corporations, international bodies, and mechanisms for securing corporate accountability.
Change, For Good
A just society would see a healthy economy exist alongside a prosperous natural environment – and ensure fair conditions for all people within, accepting that human rights are tied to a stable living environment (link to The Right to a Stable Environment page). So, to achieve justice, the transition must itself be equitable, providing reparations for past harms (link to Reparations page) and redefining future power dynamics to ensure against repetition.
The global poor; workers; the frontline and fence-line communities facing the worst instability, must be compensated for any losses brought about by reform and given due opportunities to sustain themselves and their well-being. If the way is paved with proper practice throughout, the outcome will follow. So, kind of the inverse of what we have now
