Four steps to climate justice: how we ensure we don’t leave anyone behind on the road to Net Zero
The UK government has made a legally binding commitment to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. A report commissioned on how to make this a just transition concluded: “Change on this scale has not been seen since the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago: an overhaul of industry — and therefore society — like nothing that had come before.”
The report’s authors believe that creating a world with net zero carbon emissions is a once in a generation opportunity to build a fairer, more equitable society. That means that as we transform our economy and move away from fossil fuels to embrace green technologies, we must do it in a way that doesn’t increase inequality and leave behind vast swathes of society. We need to make sure that people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, and particularly those of the poorest in society, do not suffer.
So how do we do this?
Step 1: know your challenge
The first step is to understand what impact transitioning to net zero will have on our industries and workforce. A recent study by the Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN), a programme that works to translate climate policy into action ‘on the ground’, found that transitioning to net-zero will create winners and losers.
While laying the foundations for a green economy should create an estimated three million jobs, up to 25% of people — mostly those working in construction, manufacturing and transport — are likely to need to retrain.
So now we know what we are facing, what we do about it?
Step 2: make sure businesses design green technology with everyone’s needs in mind
Businesses have a vital role to play in helping us reach net zero. From wind power to more powerful batteries, the ingenuity and creativity of British entrepreneurs has positioned the UK as a world leader in the green revolution. However, more than half of the emissions cuts needed to reach net zero rely on people and businesses taking up low-carbon solutions. To be adopted, green technology needs to serve the needs of everyone, not just the few.
Sustainability firm Vivid Economics recently conducted a study to explore how businesses leading the race to net zero could better serve marginalised UK communities.
As part of the research, researchers interviewed business leaders, members of charitable and non-profit organisations, and representatives of local authorities.
Their analysis shows that the strategies being adopted by businesses to reduce carbon emissions frequently do not take into account the needs of the community. Nor do they help to build social capital or support local social infrastructure.
If green firms don’t consider the needs of communities from the outset, there is little hope that the solutions they develop will help close the divides in our society.
To change this, the authors recommend that businesses consider the needs of the community, especially marginalised communities, from the outset. This could be done in several ways.
Firstly, businesses could design net zero solutions with more localised supply chains in mind, preventing wealth from draining out of communities.
Secondly, businesses could help build employment skills in their local area. This could be done through sponsoring programmes or scholarships, or by simply engaging with local colleges and universities to ensure the skills being taught align with those that will be demanded in the labour market.
Another solution could be to engage more with marginalised communities. This could be achieved through long term partnerships with local authorities or community organisations.
The benefits of this approach would be huge, and not just for communities. By engaging with all sectors of society, businesses would make their product more accessible to a wider consumer group, thus creating more demand for it.
Step 3: ensure climate policies don’t disproportionately punish vulnerable members of society
To reduce carbon emissions to net zero will require radical transformation. But who should bear the cost of this climate action? It’s paramount that the cost does not disproportionately fall on the poorest.
As governments around the world have started enacting policies aimed at weaning their citizens off fossil fuels, widespread protests have erupted with claims that the policies unfairly punish rural communities.
In 2021 thousands of farmers in New Zealand drove tractors into towns and cities to protest about new environmental regulations.
The government had recently introduced legislation to stop agricultural and industrial practices from polluting waterways and harming biodiversity.
Similar protests have occurred in the UK, as gamekeepers in Scotland argue that the decision to cull deer out of season is threatening their livelihoods. The cull is aimed at protecting woodland being regenerated as a response to the climate change emergency.
The Just-Scapes project aims to understand more about these tensions. In Scotland, the team are working with charity Trees for Life to analyse the impact of their Affric Highlands rewilding project, which aims to rewild an area of over 2,000 square kilometres. Currently the landscape is dominated by moorland and deer, but Trees for Life hope to restore peatlands, re-establish montane scrub, introduce habitat corridors, and support the return of some threatened species, such as Wildcat.
The research team will interview and work with landowners, inhabitants, and other stakeholders in the region to find out how they view the transition in the area.
Step 4: protect the world’s most vulnerable
Unfortunately, the effects of climate change are already being felt around the world, with 1 in 3 people already exposed to potentially deadly heat stress. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms that how vulnerable you are to the impacts of climate change depends on where you live, how poor you are and your status in society.
A billion people living on coasts will be exposed to serious flooding every year by 2050, and sea-level rise pose an “existential threat” for some small islands. People living in these places face severe droughts, floods, and fresh water becoming contaminated by approaching seas.
It will take the collective effort of all nations, to ensure the communities most at risk get the help they need.
Want to know more?
If you’re a UK taxpayer, your contributions helped fund this work, via UK Research and Innovation — the funding body that allocates government funds for research — and the nine research councils.
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The Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN) is an Economic and Social Research Council-funded programme which aims to translate climate policy into action ‘on the ground’ to bring about transformative change.
The analysis conducted by sustainability firm Vivid Economics was commissioned by Innovate UK and the Local Trust.
The Just-Scapes project forms part of the ESRC-funded JPI Climate SOLSTICE programme
