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What is "Just Transition"?
Report/Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations; Policy Tools or Evaluations
Sep 2020

Environmental Remediation and Infrastructure Policies Supporting Workers and Communities in Transition

This report reviews U.S. federal policies related to environmental remediation and infrastructure spending that can help support workers in fossil fuel–dependent communities.

Geographic Scope
United States
Sectors
Energy
Mining
Transportation
Water
Detail
Focus Areas
Economic diversification/restructuring > Economic development plans, Infrastructure investment
Employment > Job creation and/or equality
Environment and/or pollution > Human health, Nature
Government intervention > Public finance, Regulation
Inequality and/or poverty > Other
Keywords
infrastructure spending
water quality
public transport
superfund program
Brownfields program
environmental gentrification
environmental remediation
environmental legacies
environmental justice
By
Daniel Raimi
Publishing Organization
Resources For the Future (RFF), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Academic/research institution or journal, Non-profit organization/civil society organization
Summary

This report examines major federal policies related to environmental remediation and infrastructure spending, highlighting evidence of the effectiveness of these programs in terms of costs, job creation, and positive externalities. The author identifies programs that could support the communities and workers who are negatively affected by an energy transition. The author measures the cost-effectiveness of federal spending on programs to clean up “Superfund” sites, cap orphaned oil and gas wells, improve water infrastructure, construct and maintain highways, and install broadband capacity.

One section of the paper covers environmental remediation, including the closure of coal mines and nuclear or oil and gas sites. The paper notes the positive spillover effects, such as increased property values, of many environmental remediation programs. A second section covers infrastructure programs that support construction and related industries. The author notes that economists disagree on whether federal spending on infrastructure, for example highway construction, creates more economic activity or simply redistributes it.

Both environmental remediation and infrastructure programs can contribute to a just transition. However, the author warns of potential environmental justice concerns that can result from federal spending in these areas, including post-remediation gentrification and worsening air pollution in minority communities due to transportation infrastructure.

Report/Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations
Jun 2020

The EBRD Just Transition Initiative: Sharing the Benefits of a Green Economy Transition and Protecting Vulnerable Countries, Regions and People from Falling behind

This paper sets out the aims, rationale, and broad approach to implementation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s just transition initiative.

Geographic Scope
Europe
Sectors
General
Detail
Focus Areas
Economic diversification/restructuring > Economic development plans, Industry and/or sector assistance or plans, Infrastructure investment
Employment > Job creation and/or equality, Skills, Social protections
Environment and/or pollution > Nature
Inequality and/or poverty > Other
Investment > Competitiveness, Private finance, Stranded assets
Social and/or cultural impacts > Non-financial loss, Pride or cultural identity
Keywords
social inclusion
infrastructure investment
climate policy
private sector
coal assets
strategic and regional planning
coronavirus
environmental reclamation
green economy
just transition diagnostic
environmental legacies
Publishing Organization
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Development finance institution
Summary

This paper examines how the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will support progress in the economies where it invests. The paper outlines the aims, rationale, and broad approach to implementation of the EBRD’s just transition initiative, which aims to help the bank’s regions share the benefits of a green economic transition and to protect vulnerable countries, regions, and people from falling behind. The initiative builds on the EBRD’s experience of fostering transition toward sustainable, well-functioning market economies and focuses on the link between the green economy and economic inclusion. Working with national and regional authorities, EBRD clients, and other partners, the initiative emphasizes policy and commercial financing interventions that support a green transition while also assisting workers (particularly those whose livelihoods are linked to fossil fuels) in accessing new opportunities.

The paper includes an overview of the EBRD’s emerging just transition diagnostic and metrics for screening investments. This approach helps the bank screen certain regions and industries for vulnerabilities, assess the potential for various investments to advance just transition objectives and the bank’s core goals, and develop a set of policies and investment activities. This framework is especially useful in demonstrating how development finance institutions can link individual investments with broader regional plans, including in place-based investment.

Report/Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations; Policy Tools or Evaluations
Jun 2020

Seven Principles to Realize a Just Transition to a Low-carbon Economy

This report proposes seven basic policy principles to support just transitions in response to climate change and offers concrete ways to apply these principles in practice.

Geographic Scope
Global
Sectors
General
Detail
Focus Areas
Economic diversification/restructuring > Economic development plans, Industry and/or sector assistance or plans, Infrastructure investment
Employment > Job creation and/or equality, Skills, Social protections
Environment and/or pollution > Nature
Inequality and/or poverty > Gender inequality, Other
Investment > Stranded assets
Social and/or cultural impacts > Non-financial loss, Pride or cultural identity
Keywords
carbon lock-in
small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs)
entrepreneurial discovery process
polluter pays principle
environmental legacies
environmental reclamation
historical responsibility for global emissions
By
Aaron Atteridge, Claudia Strambo
Publishing Organization
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Academic/research institution or journal
Summary

“Based on a critical review of former transitions, the authors distill seven basic principles for ensuring just transitions: actively encourage decarbonization; avoid creating carbon lock-in and more “losers” in these sectors; support affected regions; support workers, their families, and the wider community affected by closures or downscaling; clean up environmental damage and ensure that related costs are not transferred from the private to the public sector; address existing economic and social inequalities; and ensure an inclusive and transparent planning process.

These principles highlight the importance of supporting affected workers but place equal emphasis on ensuring environmental protection and restoration, diversifying industry and other economic activities, and tackling socioeconomic inequity (including gender inequality) in an active pursuit of decarbonization. The authors offer recommendations on how to implement each of these principles, arguing that the justness of a transition comes from pursuing each of these principles simultaneously and that failure to do so will result in a lack of necessary social and economic support. “