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What is "Just Transition"?
Report/Definitions and Concepts; Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations
Jan 2020

Principles for a Just Transition in Agriculture

This report stresses the need to include marginalized groups such as women and migrant workers in transitions from industrialized agriculture to agroecology practices.

Geographic Scope
Global
Sectors
Agriculture
Detail
Focus Areas
Economic diversification/restructuring > Industry and/or sector assistance or plans
Employment > Job creation and/or equality, Skills, Social protections, Worker safety
Environment and/or pollution > Nature
Inequality and/or poverty > Gender inequality, Other
Resilience
Keywords
Global South
migrant workers
land management
agroecology
agribusiness
hunger
exploitation
gender barriers
farmers' unions
By
Teresa Anderson, Maria Ron Balsera
Publishing Organization
ActionAid International
Inter-governmental/international organization
Summary

This report promotes the global transition from resource-intensive industrialized agriculture to agroecology. It recommends governments and local communities collaborate to address world hunger, gender injustice, workers’ rights, and smallholder participation within their efforts to decrease the agriculture sector’s climate impacts. The authors provide a list of policy recommendations to achieve these climate and equity goals and brief examples of effective and ineffective policies.

The authors argue that this transition must minimize disruption to farmers’ lives and include traditionally marginalized groups such as women and migrant workers. Such a transition must incorporate an inclusive and participatory planning process, comprehensive policy frameworks, social protection, and guarantees of positive opportunities for affected communities to ensure their acceptance of and participation in the transition.

If appropriately done, such a transition can provide numerous benefits. More specifically, it could help decarbonize the agricultural sector, introduce sustainable farming practices (which can increase crop yield and resilience to climate change), alleviate world hunger, provide social protections for women and migrant workers, and decrease the control and influence of agribusiness.

Report/Case Study; Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations
Jun 2019

Energy Transition in Mexico: The Social Dimension of Energy and the Politics of Climate Change

This report addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with Mexico’s climate change mitigation targets and offers recommendations to incorporate social and environmental dimensions into the policymaking process.

Geographic Scope
Mexico
Sectors
Energy
Detail
Focus Areas
Government intervention > Carbon pricing, Regulation
Inequality and/or poverty > Other
Investment > Stranded assets
Justice
Social and/or cultural impacts > Other
Keywords
energy poverty
energy generation costs
land management
renewable energy
natural gas
social dimension of energy systems
participation mechanisms
energy sector governance
By
Carlos Torrnel, Mariana Gutiérrez, Jorge Villarreal
Publishing Organization
Climate Transparency, Iniciativa Climática de México (ICM)
Inter-governmental/international organization, Non-profit organization/civil society organization
Summary

This report examines Mexico’s energy transition and its associated challenges and opportunities. The energy transition is largely driven by efforts to achieve the climate change mitigation targets outlined in Mexico’s nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement, reduce electricity-generation costs, and address the social and environmental inequalities of the current energy system. The authors seek to broaden the scope of the discourse on energy transitions and incorporate social and environmental dimensions in the decision-making process.

The paper urges policymakers to incorporate mechanisms for participation, consultation, and co-design of the policies. The authors criticize the lack of social inclusion in policy reforms so far and provide recommendations for future social inclusion through engagement with local governments. While acknowledging that the energy transition will inevitably result in winners and losers, the authors make a series of policy recommendations to help the Mexican government reach its climate change mitigation goals in a fair way, including by creating socially inclusive spaces to allow participation in the energy sector, especially at the local level.

Brief/Case Study; Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations
Jul 2020

Low-carbon Transitions in West Sumatra, Indonesia: Gender and Equity Dimensions

This brief provides community perspectives on renewable energy projects, focusing on gender and social equity concerns in low-carbon transitions in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Geographic Scope
Indonesia
Sectors
Energy
Detail
Focus Areas
Inequality and/or poverty > Gender inequality, Other
Social and/or cultural impacts > Other
Keywords
subsidies
land management
renewable energy
Minangkabau people
socially differentiated needs
By
Jessica Koski, Yoariza, Bernadette Resurrección, Sivan Kartha, Mahdi, Yuerlita, May Thazin Aung
Publishing Organization
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Academic/research institution or journal
Summary

This brief provides snapshots of community perspectives on renewable energy projects in West Sumatra, Indonesia, and suggests that customized approaches are needed to address local gender and social equity concerns effectively in low-carbon transitions.

West Sumatra was selected for this study due to its high potential for renewable energy generation and diversity of possible renewable energy sources. The authors reviewed four development sites in West Sumatra as transition examples: two geothermal projects, one micro hydro project, and an oil palm company that produces biofuel and also uses waste as biomass for energy production. They conducted interviews and focus group discussions that illuminate local gender and social equity implications, which often related to customary land management practices and gender roles. They also explore lessons learned from Indonesia’s subsidy program for liquified petroleum gas.

The authors argue that policymakers should adopt a gender-sensitive approach to renewable energy decision-making to identify potential policy repercussions that could worsen existing inequalities. This approach will produce results that benefit more people and satisfy the needs of more interest groups.

Report/Guidelines, Strategies and Recommendations
Aug 2018

Towards a Just and Equitable Low-carbon Energy Transition

This paper presents a high-level review of existing literature on energy and non-energy transitions, exploring the distributive consequences of energy transitions and identifying common features of successful transitions.

Geographic Scope
Global
Sectors
Energy
Detail
Focus Areas
Economic diversification/restructuring > Economic development plans, Industry and/or sector assistance or plans
Employment > Job creation and/or equality, Skills, Social protections
Government intervention > Carbon pricing
Investment > Competitiveness, Stranded assets
Social and/or cultural impacts
Keywords
energy access
industrial policy
low carbon technologies
distributional impacts
carbon bubble
land management
fossil fuel subsidy reform
By
Ajay Gambhir, Peter Pearson, Fergus Green
Publishing Organization
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
Academic/research institution or journal
Summary

This paper explores which regions, sectors, and groups could be adversely affected by a rapid low-carbon energy transition and offers lessons from previous transitions that could minimize the adverse impacts of current and future transitions. The authors discuss the broader distributional impacts of low-carbon transitions. These include the effect of higher energy costs on poor and middle-income households due to carbon pricing or the removal of fossil fuel subsidies, the implications of lost fossil fuel-related revenues for specific countries and regions, the impact on regions and workers heavily dependent on carbon-intensive industries, and the potentially adverse consequences of rapidly deploying low-carbon technologies.

The paper presents a high-level review of existing literature on energy and non-energy transitions. While the authors focus on the distributive consequences of energy transitions, they also explore how equitable transitions are achieved. They provide examples and brief summaries of policy mechanisms incorporated in previous transitions. Based on their review, the authors identify common features of successful transitions: foresight and timing, social dialogue and coordination among stakeholders, short-term protections coupled with active government involvement in reindustrialization, and assistance to those potentially impacted by higher energy prices