Plan for a Just Transition

By incorporating principles of a just transition and environmental and climate justice, companies can increase the efficacy and durability of their climate transition action plans (CTAPs) and can shield themselves from reputational, legal, and regulatory risks – especially in their relationships with labor and frontline communities – those impacted first and worst by climate change. Factoring in considerations for a just transition is meant to fortify, not delay, a company’s decarbonization efforts and ensure efficient, durable, and positive long-term economic outcomes. 

A truly just transition should go beyond labor issues to ensure that frontline communities also have a fair and equitable path forward. According to the Climate Justice Alliance, the concept of a just transition, originally rooted in the efforts of workers and communities impacted by polluting industries, must encompass transitioning entire communities toward thriving, sustainable economies; this includes ensuring dignified livelihoods, promoting democratic governance, and fostering ecological resilience. 

The following steps can help companies identify and act on priorities for a more just, equitable, and sustainable transition:  

Step 1: Integrate environmental and climate justice considerations 

Considering how your company will support environmental justice, climate justice, and a just transition is an important part of strategy development. Here are a couple of definitions to help guide you as you consider how to ensure your business and climate strategies are just, equitable, responsible, and informed by stakeholders:  

• Environmental justice seeks to remedy existing environmental harms that have been purposefully or incidentally imposed on specific communities and prevent similar injustices from happening in the future.  
• Climate justice recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on communities of color and low-income communities, who contribute the least to the problem but face the worst impacts and often lack the resources to adapt and recover. Climate justice seeks to address the root causes of climate change while tackling social, racial, and environmental injustices, acknowledging that climate change amplifies existing inequities and injustices and distributes harm unevenly over time and across regions. 

By integrating environmental and climate justice in a CTAP and supporting a just transition, businesses can create more equitable and impactful solutions that benefit both people and the planet. This begins with recognizing that communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and those living near polluting industries are at the greatest risk, experiencing the most severe impacts of climate change, and enduring significant environmental injustices. Companies should actively work to mitigate any trade-offs their actions may create. Building trust gradually, forming authentic, long-term partnerships with communities, and involving them in decision-making and strategy development are essential steps in creating truly equitable and sustainable outcomes. 

Step 2: Consider potential climate impacts on your employees and customers and the communities in which you operate and define and use specific metrics to assess and reduce these impacts

To develop an effective plan to mitigate negative externalities and empower thriving, sustainable economies, you must first understand your company’s current impact on communities.   

To effectively identify and address community needs, businesses should participate in inclusive community engagement. Lived experiences, especially from marginalized identities, are valid forms of expertise and authority that can be used to understand how systems operate and perpetuate inequities. Taking into account the lived experiences of affected communities allows you to gain valuable insights that are not represented in traditional research and literature. Companies should use these insights as inputs and guiding principles to design and create more inclusive and durable solutions  

Reducing harm to marginalized communities must be central to net zero work. Prioritizing the input of these communities in a non-extractive way is critical. 

For more information, visit the NZAA’s “Authentically Engage with Communities” Action Step.  

Step 3: Determine your just transition action plan: develop and publicly share formal policies to ensure your transition is aligned with just transition principles

Ensuring a Just Transition is a critical part of environmental and climate justice work. It is important that your company leverages findings from your impact assessment and community engagement to prioritize actions that will meaningful and effectively mitigate negative impacts and empower thriving economies. It is important to make clear in your CTAP what actions you will take to ensure your transition is aligned with just transition principles, as well as how stakeholder feedback informed your action plans 

The following list, pulled from Ceres’ Blueprint for Implementing a Leading Climate Transition Action Plan, provides examples of potential actions your business can implement.   

• Retaining, upskilling, redeploying, and compensating affected workers.  
• Creating a fund for workers or communities negatively impacted by decarbonization strategies and by climate-related disasters.  
• Providing financial support and incentives for suppliers to support workers and communities in the transition.  
• Engaging local governments and advocating in support of regulations that ensure worker, human rights, community, and other social protections within the climate transition.  
• Ensuring trade associations have made strong public statements and support just transition principles. Investing in local communities via educational programs, apprenticeships, and technical support that advance the transition.  

To dive deeper, explore the NZAA’s “Foster Equity, Justice, and Community Engagement” Pathway.

Continue to Action Step 7: Embed Nature Positive Climate Action for guidance on integrating nature and nature-based solutions as a core part of your transition planning.