Just Transitions
- Start date
- 2021
- Duration
- Varies
- Departments
- International
- Programme status
- Ongoing
Climate change is the existential challenge of our time. Ensuring just transitions while tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is key to supporting inclusive economies and societies in the future. Evidence from the social sciences and humanities is critical to supporting a just transition and how we can shape a positive future locally, nationally and globally.
Our activities and publications under this theme will approach the following questions:
What constitutes a just transition? How and by whom should such transitions be designed and led? How can the most profound social and environmental transformations in human history take place in a just and equitable fashion? How will these transitions be experienced and understood differently across societies and communities? How have such transitions been managed in the past and how have and will they be imagined and represented?
How can political institutions – nationally, transitionally, regionally and globally - be reframed so as to encourage the adoption of forward-looking public policy? What role may there be for green deals or stimuli to support this transition and the COVID-19 response? How might the global economic system support or hinder this? How can a low carbon world be facilitated by human behaviour rather than attempt to be imposed by technological innovation?
Latest
Nature-based Solutions: A chance to break our habits - a way to transform our future
INTERREG Europe have developed an information booklet on NbS drawing on a range of sources including Realising the Potential of Nature-Based Solutions for a Transformative Societal Change from the British Academy's COP26 Briefing Series.
Just Transitions within Sectors and Industries Globally
Ensuring just transitions whilst tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is key to supporting inclusive economies and societies in the future. These projects focus specifically on action required in sectors and industries globally across supply and value chains and we expect the focus to be on key economic emitters or areas of society that will help reduce and/or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.
Just Transitions to Decarbonisation in the Asia-Pacific Region
These projects focus on the action required in the Asia-Pacific to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, to identify the potential disruption and opportunity of decarbonising economies and societies, and to recommend options and pathways for communities, workers, businesses, policymakers and the wider public.
Just Transitions in Cities
Cities and urban areas are particularly relevant in achieving just transitions in response to climate change, as the critical sites of greenhouse gas emissions that drive global climate change and as areas that will feel many of the most severe impacts of climate change.
Indigenous thinking about nature-based solutions and climate justice
Nature-based solutions must work with Indigenous and local knowledges and be primarily aligned to generating just wellbeing for people and ecosystems. Without this focus, climate actions that happen to involve ‘nature’ may be called nature-based but still be perpetuating ongoing harm to ecosystems and to people.
Publications
COP26 Briefings
Raising awareness of the importance of the humanities and the social sciences in understanding the complex human and social dimensions to environmental challenges and their solutions.
