SEG@COP26: Just Transitions the governance and institutional gap in the UK

Sussex Energy Group (SEG)

Learn how  just transitions can meet demands for a green recovery from COVID-19 addressing economic inequality and climate justice in the UK

In November, the UK hosts the delayed United Nations COP26 climate change summit. During the build-up, and over the COP itself, the <a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/sussex-energy-group/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sussex Energy Group</a> will be presenting highlights of its research work in this seminar series that are relevant to the themes of these crucial global negotiations.DescriptionWhat are the challenges of governance for just transitions? The notion of “just transition” is now a central feature of climate policymaking at various levels transnationally—from the local to the UN climate change negotiations, with nation states being urged to consider this policy issue in national climate policy frameworks since the 2018 Silesia Declaration at COP24. The growing calls for a green recovery from COVID-19 have placed economic inequality and climate justice at the top of the political agenda in many countries, adding pressure to COP26 delegates and policymakers to deliver a ‘just transition’.Yet exactly how the concept is defined, imagined and operationalized varies across socio-political and ecological contexts. This presentation reviews some popular and critical definitions of just transition, as well as some of the most prominent organizational and institutional forms designed to govern just transition outcomes. We offer early glimpses of initiatives at multiple levels of political jurisdiction in Europe, the UK, the US and New Zealand, highlighting their approaches to achieving distributional and procedural justice in the transition away from fossil fuels. We also examine some of the challenges arising from such efforts and discuss the multiple social science frameworks available to critically and constructively engage with just transition initiatives. Biographies<a href="https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p473409-abigail-martin" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Abigail Martin</a> is an interdisciplinary social scientist and Research Fellow at SPRU. Her interests lie at the intersection of environmental politics and the governance of energy and agricultural value chains. She is particularly interested in questions concerning political economy and political ecology, including how capitalism shapes and is shaped by struggles over environmental injustices and economic inequality. She has looked at these issues in industrial policy for low-carbon biofuels in the US and Brazil, solar energy policies and energy efficiency programs in California, “green” innovation in global chemical value chains, and most recently the development of shale gas in the UK.<a href="https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p214171-max-lacey-barnacle" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Max Lacey-Barnacle</a> joined SPRU as a Research Fellow in Energy Justice in February 2020 after completing his PhD at Cardiff University in 2019, focusing on the energy justice implications of energy decentralisation. He currently works closely with Dr Mari Martiskainen on the innovative FAIR project, funded by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS). FAIR is looking at the overlaps between fuel and transport poverty in the UK’s energy transition and working across all four nations of the UK. From 2021 onwards, he will also be working on the ESRC funded ROLES project, led by Professor Benjamin Sovacool. ROLES will identify how European city-regions can accelerate the decarbonisation of energy systems through the digitalisation of energy infrastructure, in ways that also create societal benefits.Image credit:<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashdenawards/42108440581/in/photostream/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">&#x27;Community renewable energy project in rural Somerset&#x27;</a> by Andy Aitchison, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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SEG@COP26: Just Transitions the governance and institutional gap in the UK

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