Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Reimagining a just transition

Éloi Laurent 2nd December 2019

Éloi Laurent opens a Social Europe series on the ‘just transition’ by framing it in the context of the social-ecological state.

just transition
Éloi Laurent

Transitions have a bad name. Rob Hopkins, who arguably introduced the word ‘transition’ into the environmental lexicon, is said to have chosen the most neutral expression possible, so that reluctant consumers and businesses would not be frightened by the hard choices and sacrifices entailed by living in harmony with the biosphere (as opposed to blindly destroying it). Transitions are supposed to be painless.

What is worse, the French historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz has convincingly argued that ‘energy transition’ is an expression coined by industrial lobbies in the mid-1970s to prevent the idea of ‘energy crisis’ from taking hold in western minds. Transitions are supposed to never really happen (and remain, forever, ideas for tomorrow).

And yet, the concept of transition is actually a very powerful tool to think about what we should be doing in the face of worsening ecological crisis—and to act upon it. Imagining a transition means having to answer three fundamental questions: why is the world we live in not desirable anymore, what world do we want and how to get from here to there?

Resonant idea

If you think the notion of ‘transition’ is a bit tricky, wait until you grapple with the idea of a ‘just transition’. Promoted in the early 1990s by the US labour leader Tony Mazzocchi—to resolve ‘the conflict between jobs and the environment’—it has resonated in recent climate summits, where heads of state have endorsed the need for a ‘just transition of the workforce’ in fossil-fuel industries.

Understood from the standpoint of the political cycle, however, there is a clear warning here to all governments not to engage in ecological transition—lest they be overthrown by the social revolt of laid-off, ‘transitioned’ workers and angry taxpayers. Just ask the French president, Emmanuel Macron.  

And yet the just transition might indeed be the most interesting idea of the early 21st century, as the twin crises of inequality and the biosphere feed one another—provided we embrace its full meaning. It is much more demanding, unfortunately, than ‘a helping hand to make a new start in life’ for fossil-fuel workers and their families, as Mazzochi put it (the economist Jim Boyce estimates that the cost of guaranteeing re-employment for workers, meeting pension commitments and assisting communities for the whole US fossil-fuel industry, one of the largest in the world, amounts to less than 1 per cent per cent of the investment needed in the country for low-carbon energy).

So what would be the key components of a just transition?

Unjust world

First question, first answer: what is the unjust world we don’t want anymore? It is one where inequality and unsustainability go hand in hand. One where outsourcing of environmental damage of all kinds is enabled by the gap between the rich and poor among and within countries, and where the poor become ill and die because of the damages inflicted on their well-being via the degradation of their environment. Environmental inequality—access to clean air, drinkable water, energy, food, protection from climate change and so on—is an inescapable challenge of our time. Inequality literally pollutes our planet.

This is true at the global level, with 90 per cent of deaths related to air pollution occurring in low-and middle-income countries. It is also true of Paris—city of light, love and lung irritation. Recently released maps show clearly that hundreds of thousands of Parisians in low-income and middle-class neighbourhoods and along the périphérique ring road are exposed to poisoning pollution, while the affluent Paris of the south and west is largely exempt from this lasting degradation of wellbeing. Inequality is a pollution enabler; pollution is an inequality accelerator.

Second question, second answer: what is the just world we desire and should be aiming for? One where human wellbeing (here and now, tomorrow and elsewhere) is improved—not growth. Yes, the growth compass is still an attractive deception to many but that is because they confuse it with social progress. And a fundamental reality is materialising before our eyes: it is not growth that creates wealth but wealth that creates growth. Growth is the superficial measure and the result of human development.

If growth is being pursued at the expense of wellbeing, as is so obviously the case in the US—where health, institutions and infrastructures are crumbling while gross domestic product, driven by inequality, increases by 3 per cent annually—then growth is an impoverishment. Look at Chile, where GDP per capita has increased by 80 per cent over the last 15 years, where growth was 4 per cent last year and 3 per cent this and yet justice (distribution rather than production) is the core demand of the protesting public.

Look at California, where GDP grows at the breathtaking rate of 5 per cent a year (almost as fast as in China) and whose ecospheres have entered a systemic crisis so severe that parts of this magnificent region are quickly becoming uninhabitable. Isn’t it obvious that the health of children is a far better indicator of development than GDP growth? Why not do what New Zealand did last May and put it front and centre in our public finances?

Just policies

Finally, how to build just policies between the unwanted world and the desirable one? By considering inequality as an obstacle and justice as a lever. Consider climate change. One of the most shocking climate numbers (and there are plenty) is not the 3.2C global temperature rise by the end of the century business as usual entails. It is the fact, rarely discussed, that even if all countries achieve their targets and pledges we are still heading for a +2.9C world.

In other words, the problem is not achieving targets—it’s changing them. And this requires starting, at long last, the global conversation about climate justice (a notion only mentioned once, and misinterpreted, in the Paris agreement).

A handful of countries, 10 per cent exactly—and a handful of people and industries within these countries—are responsible for 80 per cent of human greenhouse-gas emissions causing the climate change which is increasingly destroying the wellbeing of much of humanity around the world, mostly in developing nations. On the other hand, the vast majority of those most affected, in African and Asia in their billions, live in countries which carry almost nothing in terms of responsibility but are highly vulnerable to the disastrous consequences of climate change—heatwaves, hurricanes, flooding and so on—triggered by the lifestyles of others.

Why is climate change still not mitigated and indeed worsening before our eyes? Largely because the most responsible are not the most vulnerable and vice versa. Climate justice is the key to understanding and eventually solving the urgent climate crisis. It is the solution to climate change. As much as the great Greta deserves praise for standing tall in the face of stupidity and hatred, she is wrong on one important point: people will not ‘unite behind science’; they will unite behind justice. Let’s start the conversation on climate justice at COP 25 and make it the substance of a 2020 climate-justice treaty, which would be efficient because it is fair.

Social-ecological policy

This is as true at the national as the global level. As much as opponents and sceptics of low-carbon initiatives want it to be so, the ‘yellow vests’ revolt, one year old this month, did not demonstrate that environmental policies must be unfair by nature—they can be unfair by design.

It is perfectly possible, tomorrow, to introduce in France, for instance, a progressive carbon tax which would redistribute money to most households and help drastically to reduce fuel poverty. This is the typical social-ecological policy, part of a broader social-ecological state built on the justice-sustainability nexus, which will take us to the future we (still) want.

None of these three steps of the just transition is easy to take in and of itself but if taken together simultaneously will reinforce one another. Aiming to reduce environmental destruction, rather than increase growth, is reinforced by combatting inequality here and now and by taking inequality into account when designing environmental policy.

Difficult? For sure. But try living in a world that burns like California and breaks down like Chile.

Éloi Laurent
Éloi Laurent

Éloi Laurent (eloi.laurent@sciencespo.fr) is a senior research fellow at OFCE, the Centre for Economic Research at Sciences Po in Paris, and a professor in its School of Management and Innovation. He is author of The New Environmental Economics: Sustainability and Justice (Polity Press).

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834664e04a 8a1e 4ee0 a6f9 bbc30a79d0b1 2 Closing the Chasm: Central and Eastern Europe’s Continued Minimum Wage ClimbCarlos Vacas-Soriano and Christine Aumayr-Pintar
u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641