Presentation short abstract

JT emerged from yet shifted away from worker-centred origins, always excluding informal and Global South workers. We propose inclusive analysis spanning formal-informal labour and North-South relations, exposing how energy transitions depend on exploitation requiring transformative solidarity.

Presentation long abstract

Just Transition (JT) emerged as a labour-oriented framework to protect workers and communities impacted by environmental policy. Though incorporated into the 2015 Paris Agreement, JT has become contested with interpretations that increasingly marginalise workers' voices, particularly from the global South.

Dominant JT frameworks focus narrowly on formal, unionised workers in the global North, treating informal work as failure rather than recognising how capitalism structurally depends on informal and unpaid labour. This exclusion is problematic given precarious workers constitute the vast majority of the global workforce in energy systems.

A worker-centred transition requires expanding analysis to include all 'classes of labour': formal employment, informal energy provision, reproductive labour, and displaced agricultural work. These workers share common exploitation, with capital strategically fragmenting the working class globally to weaken resistance.

Current transitions risk perpetuating colonial dynamics through 'sacrifice zones' where costs concentrate to enable accumulation elsewhere, and 'stranded communities' facing deindustrialization in the North. These spatially differentiated but interconnected processes demand relational analysis spanning North and South.

Building transformative solidarity requires: fostering cross-sectoral worker alliances; developing international labour solidarity challenging global exploitation; and strengthening community-labour alliances connecting workplace organising with broader energy justice struggles.

This paper and panel recentres labour in JT by foregrounding marginalised workers' voices, examining struggles relationally across North-South divides, questioning whose voices count in JT agendas, and identifying institutional interventions required for a just transition serving all workers rather than capital accumulation.

Presentation short abstract

Just Transition frameworks exclude most workers. We explore precarity as a lens spanning formal-informal work, affecting all workers variably. UK-India analysis reveals Northern transitions depend on Southern injustice, requiring relational justice addressing global class dynamics.

Presentation long abstract

The notion of Just Transition (JT) is critiqued for its limited focus on formal, unionised workers, neglecting the vast and diverse forms of precarious labour that are integral to global energy systems. We argue that contemporary energy transitions inherit and reconstitute patterns of precarity rooted in colonial fossil capitalism. Drawing on Bernstein's concept of 'classes of labour' and Hart's relational comparison framework, we provide an analysis of the interconnected trajectories of the UK and India. We introduce three concepts – immanent, inherited and reconstituted precarity – to show how justice in global North transitions is relationally dependent on injustice in the global South, while revealing the complex class relations and fragmentation of labour operating within and between these geographies. The paper concludes by arguing for a shift from national employment management to a framework of relational justice that addresses global class relations.

Presentation short abstract

Dominant JT paradigms remain limited by a Eurocentric approach that foregrounds the priorities and struggles of formal waged workers in the global North. In response, this article proposes a project of ‘reworlding’ just transitions based on an engagement with the voices, experiences and imaginations

Presentation long abstract

The just transition (JT) framework provides one of the most promising global pathways to securing workers’ rights in the context of a shift to low-carbon production. Yet it remains limited by a top-down, Eurocentric approach that foregrounds the priorities and struggles of waged workers in the formal sectors of the global North. In response, this article proposes a project of ‘reworlding’ just transitions based on an engagement with the voices, experiences and imaginations of unwaged and informalised workers in the majority world. The argument unfolds in two parts. First, the article offers a critique of the limited geographical, sectoral and epistemological scope of dominant JT approaches. Second, it introduces a series of alternative and open-ended visions of transition drawn from the experiences of three influential grassroots movements rooted in the global South: the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and StreetNet International. The article concludes by advocating for an expanded and pluralistic approach to just transitions that foregrounds questions of social and ecological, as well as economic justice.

Presentation short abstract

This paper analyzes reproductive labor associated with the energy transition. It proposes an analytical framework for mapping reproductive labor for the extraction of lithium and copper in Chile, and for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries in Sweden. Ultimately, it offers empirical insights for

Presentation long abstract

In this study we illustrate how a feminist approach is highly relevant to analyze the energy transition because reproductive labor, the labor associated with sustaining the living conditions of the workforce, is often disregarded and rendered invisible in discussions of just transition, yet it is fundamentally powering this process. Grounded in a feminist approach, this paper analyses labor relations that are directly or indirectly connected to these industries and draws attention to the often-overlooked reproductive labor that sustains them. In doing so, this paper makes two key contributions: it proposes an analytical framework for mapping reproductive labor necessary for the extraction and export of lithium and copper in the region of Antofagasta, Chile, as well as the one needed for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries in Skellefteå, Sweden. This paper offers empirically grounded insights that call for a reconceptualization of justice in energy transitions, that pays attention to reproductive labor and the persistence of exploitative labor regimes.

Presentation short abstract

This paper explores how the Inter-American Human Rights System can advance a Just Transition by integrating environmental sustainability, decent work, and social justice into its jurisprudence, resisting extractivist models and ensuring no one is left behind in the climate crisis.

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the potential of regional human rights systems, particularly the Inter-American System, as normative and institutional arenas of resistance to extractivist models of development. It introduces the concept of a Just Transition, as articulated in the International Labour Organisation’s 2015 Guidelines, which advocate for an integrated approach to environmental sustainability, decent work, and social justice. Central to this framework is the protection of both substantive rights, such as the rights to work, health, and a healthy environment, and procedural rights, including access to information, participation in decision-making, and access to justice. Recent jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, notably in cases concerning workers’ rights and the right to a healthy environment, reflects growing engagement with these principles. Although the Court’s recent Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency (32/25) explicitly refers to the ILO’s Just Transition framework, its reasoning remains fragmented. This paper argues that, despite the piecemeal references, the Court’s existing jurisprudence already embeds several key elements of Just Transition, offering a foundation for further development. By analysing these decisions, the paper demonstrates how the Inter-American Court can play a pivotal role in embedding a Just Transition paradigm within regional human rights law, thereby reinforcing the Court’s mandate to ensure that sustainable development leaves no one, including workers and marginalised communities, behind.

Presentation short abstract

This paper contrasts two approaches to just transitions in Africa’s renewable extractives: ILO/UNFCCC’s focus on labour and land justice within countries, and Behuria/Amin’s structural critique of global dependency. Using Ghana and Nigeria, it explores labour agency and policy implications.

Presentation long abstract

The global rush to achieve net-zero emissions has intensified demand for critical minerals, positioning Africa’s renewable extractives sector at the heart of energy transitions. This paper interrogates the notion of justice for workers in industries that enable these transitions, contrasting two conceptual approaches. The first, advanced by ILO and UNFCCC frameworks, emphasizes within-country justice – decent work, reskilling, social dialogue, and land rights – seeking to mitigate domestic labour vulnerabilities during structural shifts. The second, articulated by Pritish Behuria and grounded in Samir Amin’s theories of dependency and delinking, critiques the global political economy of transitions, highlighting rent capture by multinational firms and Africa’s marginal role in high-value segments of green value chains. Through Ghana and Nigeria as case studies, the paper examines how workers in both fading hydrocarbon sectors and emerging critical mineral industries navigate tensions between domestic energy needs, sustainability ambitions, and investor-driven transition pathways. Methodologically, it adopts an exploratory, inductive approach using existing data sources to extrapolate labour realities. Analytically, it argues that excluding labour voices while privileging investor interests undermines equitable and swift transitions. The paper concludes by proposing an integrated justice framework that combines national labour protections with structural strategies for industrial autonomy, positioning workers as agents of sustainability rather than passive recipients. This presentation is part of ongoing research co-led by me (Clement Sefa-Nyarko) and Eka Ikpe.

Presentation short abstract

This article explores the potential for climate solidarity by analysing Niger Delta oil workers’ articulated social and environmental interests. Interests should be empirically explored, not theoretically assumed, as it is crucial for workers’ agency.

Presentation long abstract

This article explores the social relations and environmental experiences of Nigerian oil workers, as a potential basis for climate solidarity. Our starting point is that interests are the foundation for building climate alliances. In much academic literature, workers’ interests in relation to the environment are assumed, rather than empirically studied. We emphasise that interests need to be subjectively experienced to be relevant and actionable, and consequently researchers need to engage with how workers’ express interests. Based on interviews with four groups of oil workers, our analysis shows that they depict a social landscape that is deeply fragmented, and which is a challenge to solidarity. However, they also describe these disconnections from others as manipulated by state and capital to undermine their agency. Further, they express an interest in improving the environment and climate change, as its impacts negatively affect their own and families’ health, safety and lives. This indicates a potential for climate solidarity—not necessarily to phase out petroleum, but to reduce emissions and pollution. Such alliances could contribute to enhancing oil workers’ agency.

Presentation short abstract

The paper maps just transition in Scotland, situates the case in wider debates on labour environmentalism and economic democracy and provides novel insights into attitudes and motivations of energy workers, communities and climate activists in the context of Scotland’s contested transition politics.

Presentation long abstract

Scotland is seen as a leader on climate action and decarbonisation with the Scottish government not only setting some of the world’s most ambitious targets, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2045, but crucially also incorporating just transition principles in its legislation (Climate Change Act 2019), and establishing an independent advisory body, the Just Transition Commission. Importantly, however, these institutional achievements need to be understood in the context of sustained, left-green movement building and mobilising in Scotland, coinciding with the emergence of new grassroots mobilisations including Extinction Rebellion and youth climate strikers, and more specifically the longstanding work of the Just Transition Partnership, a coalition between the Scottish Trades Union Congress and Friends of the Earth Scotland. However, as just transition became institutionalised in Scotland, it also became more contested, with critical voices pointing to an increasing ‘watering down’ of the more progressive and even radical roots of the concept. Damningly, too, the Scottish government has recently conceded that it is no longer on track to meet its 2030 targets, scrapping its interim 75% reduction target in April 2024. Yet, at the same time, climate activists and workers are increasingly reclaiming the concept of just transition, with workers in the energy sector in particular pushing for a just energy transitions on- and offshore. This paper maps the development of just transition narratives and politics in Scotland and draws on new empirical materials to investigate the status quo of just transition efforts in the Scottish energy sector ‘in practice’.