How to stop poorly planned climate transitions from sparking civil unrest

From the farmers of southern France to the Wayúu Indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia and the coal miners of Mpumalanga, South Africa; many communities around the world are living on the frontlines of once-in-a-generation industrial shifts to an emissions-free global economy. 

While disparate in their plights, contexts and surroundings, these three communities share a common thread: they are not taking it lying down. All three are advocating, protesting and disrupting in response to the social and economic consequences of these changes. Their concerns can be seen in rolling tractors through the streets in protest against new environmental regulations, as well as in resisting new wind farm constructions, and marching against the closure of coal-fired power plants. Such acts of civil disobedience present profound challenges to green projects everywhere.

The temptation for those responsible for net zero projects might be to give up on dialogue with concerned stakeholders, or to use political clout to lobby for fast-track permissions, evade transparency – or even to retreat from the projects entirely. In fact, these and other cases demonstrate precisely why local communities have to be meaningfully involved in decision making surrounding carbon reduction strategies. 

Institutions everywhere face the urgent and daunting task of decarbonising in  ways that do not harm – but actually create opportunities for – the people at the heart of these changes.  

The Just Transition

The notion of a “Just Transition” – focused on the rights of workforces impacted by climate actions – was first recognised in the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. That historic accord identified the world’s urgent mission of eliminating additional greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve this and stay within the critical 1.5°C global warming limit, emissions must be cut by 45% by 2030 – now just six years away. The world simply cannot afford to waste time. 

Delivering net zero is non-negotiable – but how it is delivered must be rigorously negotiated. 

Those living on the frontlines of these changes already know  transitions require difficult choices. But the bottom line is they cannot be left out of the process of engaging in the necessary solutions, dialogues and trade-offs. As seen in France, Colombia, South Africa and elsewhere, such top-down transitions invariably fail. 

This is why workers, indigenous groups, and local communities’ agency and involvement are key to delivering fast and effective climate action, where the challenges of decarbonisation are shared fairly and the benefits reaped equitably. Governments and companies have a duty to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of these groups, including rights to a healthy environment, adequate housing, clean water and cultural integrity. This entails ensuring meaningful participation, access to information, and consultation in decision-making processes, as well as providing adequate compensation, support and safeguards to mitigate any adverse impacts of transitions. 

The urgent need for meaningful just transition partnerships

Poorly planned transitions to net zero cannot become the next driver of social unrest; that will only serve to further delay climate progress. With multiple and complex transitions underway at local, national and regional levels, there is an urgent need to highlight meaningful partnerships between those leading public or private sector net zero transitions and those most impacted – local workers, indigenous peoples, and diverse communities on the frontlines of change.

Take the diminutive town of Libiąż in southern Poland. 

For a generation, locals considered the town a mere extension of the Janina coal mine two kilometres away, so dependent was the local economy on the mine and its waste heap. However, the spectre of Poland’s inexorable transition to clean energy long loomed over Libiąż’s prospects. Aiming to avoid the impending economic devastation, municipal leaders, mine managers, trade unions, business leaders and community activists teamed up – with the help of the World Bank’s Just Transition initiative – to transform Libiąż from a fossil fuel bulwark into an environmentally and socially sustainable economy. 

This included finding new vocations for its industrious and hardy coal community. Thermoplast, ​​a local plastics processing and recycling company, has been one of the beneficiaries. The company has actively recruited and invested in Libiąż’s former miners, and now employs 163 people, and has grand plans for expansion. “We are constantly looking for new products and new technologies, and for this we also need people,” Piotr Dyba, a Thermoplast management board member, told the World Bank in autumn 2022. “The employees who come to us from the mining industry [are] the most useful employees.” 

This symbiotic relationship did not come about by chance, though. It was the product of years of planning and cross-sectoral partnerships involving an array of local stakeholders, including the town’s mayor, the mine manager, trade union leaders, the local school headmaster , and representatives of  Libiąż’s Social Welfare Centre – to name but a few.

These types of collaborations between communities and institutions are happening all over the world right now. 

In Peru, for instance, the government is attempting to halt deforestation and secure local indigenous groups’ tenure rights simultaneously. Peru’s national climate plan includes an Amazon Indigenous REDD+ initiative implemented in partnership with local governments, combining indigenous agroforestry techniques with a focus on securing collective land rights. In one case, nearly one million acres in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the state of Madre de Dios have been protected by the community – preserving land that is fundamental both for the nation’s carbon budget and the livelihoods of its indigenous community. 

Many are learning as they go. 

The Ugandan government’s initial response to rising climate change disasters and deforestation involved displacing communities from vulnerable areas; however, this resulted in farmers losing both economic and social capital. In response, the government worked with farmers to develop new pro-poor, long-term and nature-based approaches to improve communities’ economic prospects. Today, farmers have a choice: they can receive compensation in return for their land titles or they can opt for a two- or three-year transition period, using exposed lands to diversify their sources of income through agroforestry and fishing. 

Learning from JUST Stories

Inspired by these types of partnerships, the people driving them, and their unfolding successes and challenges, IHRB is launching a global search for first-hand stories of people working together to advance just transitions. 

JUST Stories seeks to shine a spotlight on how meaningful just transition partnerships between institutional decision makers and local groups most affected by climate transitions are being formed. We want to understand how these partnerships work, how agency is being embedded in decision making,and how accountability can be maintained. 

In this series, we will amplify stories that offer lessons that can be  replicated and scaled. We will be transparent with our selection criteria, with an emphasis on stories spanning a diversity of potentially affected groups, as well as sectors and geographies. 

Once initial stories have been chosen, the JUST Stories team will embark on an exhaustive learning and reporting period, engaging with the full spectrum of actors involved. We will  publish long-form, multimedia feature articles on what we learn, both on the JUST Stories platform and in mainstream media outlets. 

The stories we are seeking may be hard to come by. 

Many will likely only feature elements of innovation and promising practice, rather than anything resembling holistic or “best” practice. But we believe action is best inspired by first-hand stories that demonstrate the art of the possible. That’s why we need businesses, financial institutions, and governments, as well as workers, indigenous groups, and local communities to tell the world about their approaches and attempts – both the successes and learnings. Together we can create a community of just transition practitioners, sharing honest, practical and useful lessons on how those most affected can be a central part of  the transitions that will unfold over the next two to three decades.

The JUST Stories portal is live and will be open to submissions – in any language – throughout 2024. To access the portal, and for details of how local communities, businesses and public institutions can share stories of just, fair and meaningful net zero transitions, please visit www.just-stories.org