Yes / The School of Law University of Bradford is a modern law school with a growing research portfolio on various aspects of sustainable development law and policy. We support an active research community which comprises our academics, our students, and external partners, leading on, and collaborating in, world-class research which is academically rigorous, innovative, applicable to real life, can positively influence policy and practice and promote social justice. For this purpose, we collaborate with academic, third sector, professional and industry partners at national and international levels to foster an active research community, social justice and innovative, policy-oriented research. The term ‘just transition’ has recently evolved from a process that seeks to galvanize a change in energy production and consumption practices to one which alludes to a transition from a fossil-fuel dependent economy or development approach to a lowcarbon economy. The just transition discourse takes as its point of departure the recognition that fossilfuel dependent economies were characterised by environmental injustice, inequalities or uneven distribution of environmental resources. Hence, the need to protect vulnerable communities, workers and dependent economic systems so that the adverse impact of the transition to a low-carbon economy will be reduced. It is imperative that a holistic approach be taken in recognising the inequalities which have arisen for various stakeholders within and between countries that bear the cost of decarbonization, including historical concerns and environmental (in)justice. Therefore, implementing just transition requires an overview of social equality; inclusive participation; distributive justice; policy reform and implementation of judicial and non-judicial mechanisms for access to environmental justice. Hence, the conference provided a forum to identify diverse pathways for implementing just transition, explore how inequalities arise from these transitions, and highlight effective legal frameworks for access to environmental justice at the international and national levels.

Coal Mining has been the economic backbone of many communities in Southern Appalachia for over a century. As our nation and the world begin to feel the concrete effects of climate change, communities need to prepare for the necessary transition to renewable energy. We sought to gain a better understanding of how the transition away from industrial coal mining into renewable energy sources has changed the lives of not only the miners and their families but also the community at large, presently. Results were limited to peer reviewed academic journal materials and publications that are published by reputable and relevant sources with publication dates ranging from 2013 to 2023. The Key Search Terms were: “Coal” “Appalachia” “Renewable” “Energy” and “Just Transition.” Of the 109 articles that resulted roughly 82 were eliminated due to not aligning fully with our topic. Another 14 were removed because they did not deal with Appalachia. Out of the 13 remaining, eight were from scholarly journals, three were from scientific websites, and two were from both a book and a doctoral dissertation concerning the “Just Transition.” The review of our chosen sources supports the facts that there is a social movement away from coal and into renewable energy resources. The growing pains associated with this transformation have been taxing for the communities involved but, research indicates, the gains from new renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal far outweigh any temporary financial booms gained from continuing to invest community resources in mining coal and cutting timber. These outdated modes of wealth accumulation have proven to be both harmful and ephemeral. The cost in the deteriorating health of both the miners and their families has been catastrophic for Appalachians. Black Lung and other pulmonary ailments as well as the Opioid Epidemic have lowered average life expectancies for the first time in generations. The transition into both natural gas and the use of renewables has made coal companies cut costs in both supervision and safety. The results have crippled and disabled many coal miners, driven them to the use of powerful opioids and the resulting black market even caused a small coal mine support town in Southwest Virginia, Norton, to become the “Oxycontin Capital of the World.” The technologies involved with renewable energy sources and subsequent cleaning up of the environment around reclaimed mines will create more jobs than the mines ever did and the extra capital will allow these towns, communities, and this region to grow robust and thriving public service and utility infrastructures that will heal both the great land and great people of Southern Appalachia.

Yes / The transition towards low-carbon societies is creating winners and losers, raising new questions of justice. Around the world, litigation increasingly articulates these justice questions, challenging laws, projects and policies aimed at delivering climate change adaptation and/or mitigation. In this Perspective, we define and conceptualise the phenomenon of ‘just transition litigation’. This concept provides a new frame to identify and understand the diverse justice claims of those affected by climate action. We set out a research agenda to further investigate this phenomenon, with a view to enhancing societal acceptance and support for the transition. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 08 Apr 2025.

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Since the establishment of Scotland’s Climate Change Act, principles of just transition have been statutory and guiding the implementation of several policies on the area. Such policies have laid the foundation for collaborative governance efforts, that invites state and non-state partners to engage on the political arena. Critiques towards such collective governance approaches argue that it promotes a post-political condition, guided by values of consensus and cohesion, that moves democratic issues to the periphery of political inquiry. By analysing key just transition policies within Scotland, and conducting interviews with non-state actors with different relations to the Scottish policy process, I seek to gain greater understanding of how the discursive positioning of agents of change could be understood through post-politics. Thus, this thesis explores how agents of change, and their agency, is made sense of, and how this sense-making reflects contradictory and challenging dynamics such as power struggles, conflicts of interest, and collective action problems, within just transition. I identify four key agents of change – workers, communities, industries, and the government – and discover that the policy material and my interviewees position these agents differently in relation to the problems of just transition. Further, I also identify challenging dynamics within sense-making of agents of change, such as contradictory transition narratives, tensions regarding how the relationship between labour and nature is made sense of, as well context-bound relationships between the change agents. I conclude that the strive for social consensus within the collaborative sphere neglects these challenging and contradictory dynamics, and fails to reflect the democratic pluralism of how agents of change are made sense of in the Scottish context.

This dissertation argues that the just transition policy framework may not vivify labor internationalism or erode support for right-wing populists if just transitions are not part of left-wing populist projects. Labor internationalism, which involves labor unions cooperating across borders to pursue common goals, is increasingly important as unions strive to work with their foreign counterparts to influence the international community's urgent efforts to address climate change. Right-wing populism is a growing threat to organized labor and climate protection efforts. Some labor activists hope that advocacy for the just transition policy framework, a set of guidelines for compensating workers in polluting industries who are laid-off as a result of environmental protections, will unite labor organizations from around the world and improve their approaches to international solidarity. Progressives hope that just transition policies will discourage voters from supporting right-wing populist candidates, who are often climate skeptics, out of fear of the job losses that accompany environmentalist reforms. However, I question the assumption that just transition policies, in and of themselves, can serve as solutions to the challenges posed by right-wing populism or overcome divisions within the global labor movement. It is possible for economic nationalism at the expense of global solidarity to continue and for right-wing populists to maintain support in decarbonizing areas where policy makers have indemnified laid-off fossil fuel workers. Integrating just transition policies into left-wing populist politics could potentially make just transitions more useful for countering the far-right and promoting labor internationalism. This dissertation looks to the political theorist Antonio Gramsci's thoughts regarding the "national popular," which Gramsci's readers often associate with left-wing populism. The national popular entails intellectuals from different fields (such as the academy, journalism, and manufacturing) coming together to modernize patriotism and strip it of chauvinistic nationalism. I point out that the original proposals for just transitions prioritized providing free higher education for the workers laid-off from polluting industries. The just transition framework's stress on higher education has populistic implications. Educators, particularly members of teachers' unions, may practice populism throughout the implementation of a just transition for laid-off coal workers by encouraging the displaced workers to cooperate with knowledge workers to rethink nationalism. If workers displaced from polluting industries rethink nationalism in university settings while maintaining their connections to the labor movement, then these workers may in turn reject far-right politicians and discourage organized labor from supporting trade nationalism. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation argues that the just transition policy framework may not vivify labor internationalism or erode support for right-wing populists if just transitions are not part of left-wing populist projects. Labor internationalism, which involves labor unions cooperating across borders to pursue common goals, is increasingly important as unions strive to work with their foreign counterparts to influence the international community's urgent efforts to address climate change. Right-wing populism is a growing threat to organized labor and climate protection efforts. Some labor activists hope that advocacy for the just transition policy framework, a set of guidelines for compensating workers in polluting industries who are laid-off as a result of environmental protections, will unite labor organizations from around the world and improve their approaches to international solidarity. Progressives hope that just transition policies will discourage voters from supporting right-wing populist candidates, who are often climate skeptics, out of fear of the job losses that accompany environmentalist reforms. However, I question the assumption that just transition policies, in and of themselves, can serve as solutions to the challenges posed by right-wing populism or overcome divisions within the global labor movement. It is possible for economic nationalism at the expense of global solidarity to continue and for right-wing populists to maintain support in decarbonizing areas where policy makers have indemnified laid-off fossil fuel workers. Integrating just transition policies into left-wing populist politics could potentially make just transitions more useful for countering the far-right and promoting labor internationalism. This dissertation looks to the political theorist Antonio Gramsci's thoughts regarding the "national popular," which Gramsci's readers often associate with left-wing populism. The national popular entails intellectuals from different fields (such as the academy, journalism, and manufacturing) coming together to modernize patriotism and strip it of chauvinistic nationalism. I point out that the original proposals for just transitions prioritized providing free higher education for the workers laid-off from polluting industries. The just transition framework's stress on higher education has populistic implications. Educators, particularly members of teachers' unions, may practice populism throughout the implementation of a just transition for laid-off coal workers by encouraging the displaced workers to cooperate with knowledge workers to rethink nationalism. If workers displaced from polluting industries rethink nationalism in university settings while maintaining their connections to the labor movement, then these workers may in turn reject far-right politicians and discourage organized labor from supporting trade nationalism.

This thesis examines the justice priorities found in the national climate transition governance proposed by the eight political parties represented in the Swedish parliamentary. Building on previous research on how justice perspectives are integrated in Sweden’s national climate transition policy discourse, this thesis contributes by identifying prioritized areas and actors/groups in each of the political parties’ climate transition proposals and comparing justice priorities that emerge in these policy proposals.  Just transition is used as a theoretical framework to analyze the political parties’ perspectives on global climate justice, the economy and labor market, environmental justice, and transportation and energy.  The findings show that while explicit justice priorities do not make up a major part of the motions, all political parties consider various social goals alongside emission reductions in their national climate policy. The Swedish political parties all offer different climate transition governance proposals, but a lot of justice priorities are shared. An overall focus on job creation, lowering energy costs for households, and lowering emissions from the transportation sector without limiting mobility is present across the board.

En effektiv klimatomställning kräver aktiv inkludering av rättvisa i forskningen och att specificera hur samhällsgrupper särskilt påverkade av klimatomställningen definierar rättvisa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva vad människor bosatta på landsbygden upplever är en rättvis klimatomställning samt att förstå vad som krävs för att åstadkomma en rättvis klimatomställning. Fokusgrupper har genomförts och analyserats utifrån olika dimensioner av rättvisa som utgör begreppet rättvis omställning; rättvis fördelning, proceduriell rättvisa, rätt till erkännande, rumslig rättvisa och rättvis bild av landsbygden. Resultatet visar att landsbygdsbor inte upplever rättvisa utifrån någon av dimensionerna och att åtgärder behöver vidtas för att de ska göra det. Vad som krävs är för att åstadkomma rättvisa i klimatomställningen är att beakta och ta hänsyn till landsbygdens skilda förhållanden, att värdera landsbygdens välmående och att prioritera utveckling av landsbygden. Resultaten bidrar också till att utveckla begreppet rättvis omställning. / An effective low-carbon transition requires an active inclusion of justice in research to specify how societal groups especially impacted by the low-carbon transition defines justice. The aim of this essay is to describe what people living in rural areas experience as a just transition and to understand what is required to achieve a just transition. Focus groups have been conducted and analysed through different dimensions of justice that make up a just transition; distributional justice, procedural justice, recognitional justice, spatial justice and a just image of the periphery. The results show that people living in rural areas does not experience justice through any of the dimensions and that action is needed for them to do so. What is required to achieve a just transition is to consider and take into account the different conditions specific to rural areas, to value the wellbeing of rural areas and to prioritize development in rural areas. The results also contribute to develop the concept just transition. / Inkluderande klimatomställning – dialoger om att leva hållbart bortom staden

The climate crisis is an urgent threat towards people and planet, and rapid changes are needed to decarbonize the planet. The energy sector is in a current transition to renewable-based energy, which also includes a shift to electric cars. Electric cars are motivated to be the future, which will be beneficial for the economy and the environment. The industry has also received criticism, several human rights violations occur in the supply chains of the electric cars and that it is an industry that risk increasing global inequalities. This study explores the complexity of the car industry’s transition to renewable energy, based on case studies of Volvo, Mercedes, and Volkswagen, and their sustainability work related to the supply chains of electric vehicles batteries. The purpose is to show the relation between companies and power structures, as an exemplification of the possibilities for a just energy transition from fossil fuel-based energy to renewable-based energy. The findings shows that the transition is shaped by economical values, which risks broaden the gap between Global South and Global North. It emphasized that it is an issue that needs a collective effort to change the Status Quo, to create sustainable solutions based on the three pillars of sustainable development beneficial for all, not only the Global North.

This thesis investigates the reception of the updated directive, Energy Performance of Building Directive, from the EU. The focus of the study is to analyse eight referral responses from chosen stakeholders and investigate their perspectives on the updated directive, negative and positive, any specific interests, are there any patterns that emerge in their responses and what are their concerns regarding the possible impact on society. The intention is to map the possible outcomes in society, focusing on social sustainability, including issues such as economic impact, social justice, and community impact.    The empirical material in this study is eight different referral responses on the updated version of the Energy Performance of Building Directive. The chosen methodical approach for this study is document analysis and thematic analysis. The findings are presented in four themes and later analysed and discussed through the lens of the chosen theoretical framework, which is environmental justice.    The findings show a large focus on accessibility to housing, resources and cost efficiency, excessive regulation and micromanagement, and the need for financial support and incentives. The stakeholders fear that the number of details in the Energy Performance of Building Directive will sub-optimise Sweden’s production. Even though the directive states that this initiative will protect the most vulnerable groups in society, the stakeholders fear it will aggravate the situation due to increased rents and economic burdens in general for the whole society.    This study concludes that such details should be discussed at the national level and it is important to include an environmental justice approach to avoid increasing the current inequalities and ensure that the needed transition will not be made at the expense of vulnerable segments of the population.