Just Transitions

“Just Transition” is an increasingly visible framing for government and business action on climate change. It encompasses both public policies and business action to deal with the impacts of industry transition away from greenhouse gas emissions for jobs and livelihoods (the transition ‘out’) and measures to generate the low or zero greenhouse gas emission jobs and livelihoods of a sustainable society (the transition ‘in’).

IHRB's Just Transitions programme seeks to contribute to a wider understanding of just transitions through research and testing effective approaches for companies and governments to integrate the voices and concerns of those impacted by climate-related policy and action at every level. Our foundational report, Just Transitions for All: Business, Human Rights and Climate Action, set out the benefits of approaches that considers all the salient rights of workers, communities, and consumers affected by transitions, as well as those facing the impacts of climate change. IHRB's four essential elements for safeguarding the "just" in just transition offer further context and guidance for how to combat the confusion and risk of cooption that is growing as the concept gains popularity.

We are expanding upon this work through the exploration of key transition areas, including: 

• Stakeholder-led Transitions: Narratives illustrating the benefits of meaningful engagement between public and private enterprises and workers, communities, and indigenous groups are rare to non-existent within the net-zero agenda. This project will highlight change-makers – from transitioning institutions and the frontline groups most affected – who are finding ways of doing things differently, working in meaningful partnership to navigate the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs involved in the race to net-zero.
• Financing the Transition: There is significant potential for social impact considerations to be better baked into each component of the spectrum of finance, to harness the critical role of capital in driving rights-respecting and people-centred transitions across every industry.
• The Cost of Green Conflict: The growth of renewable energy around the world is bringing with it significant distress, disruption, and dissent from indigenous groups, communities, and workers. This two-year project will seek to evidence and demonstrate the operational and reputational costs to renewable energy companies across a mix of green technologies when they fail to secure or maintain their social licence to operate.
• The "J" in "JETP": Just Energy Transition Partnerships are fast becoming a go-to model for national-level decarbonisation initiatives. They represent the nexus of the financing and social imperatives at the heart of achieving net-zero. Our work on JETPs analyses the human rights risks and social opportunities associated with private sector involvement in JETPs, starting with a pilot study on South Africa, the first JETP country and most advanced in terms of implementation.
• The Built Environment: There is growing recognition of “social value”, “impact investing”, and the importance of the 2030 Development Agenda among some investors, developers, architects, construction and engineering firms. But there is much less awareness of the potential adverse human rights impacts that can arise throughout the built environment lifecycle, including in the growing wave of green buildings and retrofits.
• Coastal Renewables: The growth of wind energy globally is essential in the transition to net zero. To date, however, consultation by energy companies and investors with locally affected communities - whose livelihoods may be harmed if not destroyed by new wind installations - is largely inadequate