A Just Transition

Climate
scientists are saying that global warming, as evidenced by melting polar ice
caps, is worse than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and that global emissions must peak
by 2015 if climate chaos, and resulting human social chaos, is to be avoided. Government
policy needs to be driven by this science, not by political and economic
expediency, no matter how challenging the transition to a clean energy economy
might be. The Garnaut Review needs to rise to this challenge if it is to drive energy
futures towards sustainability.

Yet as the global
warming threat grows, many Australian political leaders remain under the spell
of the coal industry and its ‘greenhouse mafia’. Indeed, despite the obvious
risks some are still advocating new coal-fired power stations and a massive
increase in coal-exports. The federal and state governments are gambling that carbon
capture and storage (CCS) technologies will save the industry, even as growing numbers
of experts note that this technology is likely to be too little, too late and
too risky to be commercialised and installed widely enough to make a difference
in the short window of opportunity needed for action. They are throwing
billions of dollars in subsidies towards CCS and the mythical ‘clean coal’
at the behest of the industry.

Meanwhile
investment and incentives for markets for renewable energy and energy
efficiency technologies in which Australia could be a world leader
are being seriously frustrated.

Tackling
climate change means our dependency on coal as an export earner and as a
domestic fuel must be phased out over the next decades, rather than ramped
up. This will mean a huge change in the
national economy, and for coal-affected regions such as the Hunter and Latrobe Valleys. The challenges associated with
this change are significant, but not insurmountable. Indeed, a transition to clean, renewable
energy promises to revitalise Australian manufacturing and create thousands of
new jobs in many rural, regional and urban communities.

Environmental
organizations and labour unions refer to the process of economic restructuring
from non-sustainable industries to a sustainable economy as a ‘Just
Transition’. A just transition links ecological sustainability with issues of work,
equity and social justice. A just transition process recognises the needs of
both current and future generations for safe, secure and satisfying jobs.
Participants in a just transition seek to build collaborations rather than
conflict, and in particular, to avoid a false ‘jobs vs the environment’
conflict. A just transition is needed to ensure that the costs of change do not
fall on vulnerable workers and communities

The Canadian
Labour Congress (CLC) was a pioneer in the theory and organizing around the
just transition concept and noted in their report, Just
Transition for Workers During Environmental Change(2000), that:

"Just transition will ensure that the
costs of environmental change will be shared fairly. Failure to create a just
transition means that the cost of moves to sustainability will devolve wholly
onto workers in targeted industries and their communities."

The CLC also noted in this report
that Green job creation – secure, stable, quality jobs which are clean, healthy
and stress-free – is the flip side of a just transition.

The Australian
Council of Trade Unions in their 2007 position paper on global warming also noted that a just transition is
needed to deal with the challenges of climate change, and this requires new partnerships
of the labour movement and other sectors, including government, industry, local
communities and training providers to retrain and re-skill workers into jobs
in the renewable energy industry.

The ACTU
policy recognises the tremendous potential of renewable energy to create additional
jobs in development, installation and operation phases:

Increasing
the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix is possible without
damaging existing industry and with continuing growth in high quality jobs, as
the EU experience demonstrates. (1)

A just transition to a renewable energy economy is possible, based on
currently-available low-risk energy efficiency and renewable energy
technologies (solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass) with gas as a
transitional fuel. Research shows that these technologies can meet energy
needs in Australia
and the developing countries of our region (2). Renewable energy systems are more
resilient and flexible than big centralised coal-fired power stations which
require massive investment in a single piece of infrastructure that creates a
supply, rather than demand-driven energy market. Renewables’ flexibility comes
through the technologies being decentralised to multiple sites where solar,
wind and geothermal resources are available – often in rural communities where
investment and economic revitalisation is urgently needed.

Shifting
investment towards energy efficiency and renewable energy industries would
revitalise Australian manufacturing industry and create many more new jobs than
in current fossil fuel industries per dollar invested. Installation of solar
hot water systems and insulation in households and workplaces would cut carbon
emissions, create jobs and reduce energy bills, and particularly assist low-income
households.

A report, A
Bright Future: 25% Renewable Energy for Australia by 2020, commissioned by the Australian
Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network Australia
(CANA) found that a 25% renewable energy target by 2020 would deliver 16,600
new jobs to Australians, as well as generating $33 billion in new investment
and enough renewable electricity to power every home in Australia.

A just transition needs government interventions – setting environmental goals and
establishing regulatory frameworks, market incentives and regional development
support. Research (3) on successful green industrial restructuring processes in Europe have identified key policies as including:

A clear
decision to end investment in the affected area or industry
Clear
environmental targets
Availability
of satisfactory technological alternatives to the technology being phased out
Political
leadership that promotes innovation, partnerships and the diffusion of
alternative technologies for new industries, research and development, tax
relief, and infrastructure investments
A high degree
of political integration among different government sectors
Funding for
compensation to minimise social and regional disruption caused by change,
including income support for low-income households to meet increased costs
Establishment
of Regional Economic Development Funds to facilitate investment in new
industries and jobs in targeted areas.

This is all
possible in Australia’s
coal communities. Active government intervention
that anticipates and plans for change, provides education and training, and invests
in infrastructure for industries of the future in coal communities will offer
pathways to sustainability, rather than leaving coal communities’ environments
degraded and economies locked into dinosaur technologies.

Coal
communities need alternative employment opportunities in well-paid, secure and
satisfying jobs. Workers in transition between jobs need redundancy
entitlements, income maintenance and opportunities for retraining tailored to
individual skills, needs and local opportunities. Workers who relocate to seek
work elsewhere should receive relocation assistance. Research shows that
workers with less formal education, older or disabled workers need special
targeted support.

The Garnaut
Review has the opportunity to identify energy policies that can respond to the
global warming threat and drive a just transition to a sustainable energy
economy. The Review needs to support:

A legislated
target to reduce Australia’s
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by the year 2020
An Emissions
Trading Scheme (ETS) that reduces emissions in line with a 40% national reduction by
2020, with all technologies and participants in a carbon emissions trading
scheme treated equally (i.e. there should be no free allocations of
carbon credits or ‘grandfathering’ within this system)
Use of ETS revenue
to support the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency
technologies in coal communities, and to compensate low income consumers for
higher energy prices.

A shift to a
renewable energy economy would revitalise Australian manufacturing industry and
create thousands of new jobs, including in coal communities. Renewable energy
and energy efficiency technologies could be boosted if governments:

Set a national
target for energy efficiency to stabilize growth in energy consumption
Set mandatory,
enforceable minimum energy standards for domestic and commercial buildings
Establish a
national program for retrofitting solar hot water systems to all houses,
schools and workplaces
Set an energy
performance standard for residential and commercial lighting
Accelerate the
Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) program
Set a national
target for renewable energy of 40% by 2020
Establish a
national feed-in tariff to encourage development of solar photovoltaic and
solar thermal power
Develop
innovative financial packages (e.g. no interest loans) to support consumers to install energy
efficiency and renewable energy technologies
Initiate major
re-fits of public housing with energy efficiency and renewable energy
technologies to reduce energy bills for low income families
Redirect all
public subsidies that encourage the use and production of fossil fuels towards
implementing energy efficiency programs, deploying renewable energy and
supporting the upgrading of public transport infrastructure
Provide
renewable energy and energy efficiency expertise, technologies, goods and
services to less developed nations to support their transition to the
post-carbon world.

A moratorium
on new coal-fired power stations and on extensions to existing coal fired power
stations, and a phased withdrawal of existing coal-fired power stations –
beginning with the most polluting – is needed, matched by a shift in investment to alternative clean
energy technologies

Energy
security can be achieved in Australia
and globally by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, with gas
as an interim fuel. A switch to clean
energy-based economy in the Hunter Valley and other coal communities, and in Australia’s
global energy markets, can provide thousands of new Green jobs while protecting
local and global environments. Green-labour alliances can inspire the broad-based
community campaigns needed to make a just transition to renewable energy and
new Green jobs.

References

(1) Australian
Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) (2007) Principles and Policy on Global
Warming: ACTU
Position Paper. Melbourne, Australia:
ACTU, p. 6.

(2) Teske,
S., Zervbos, A. & Schäfer, O. (2007) Energy
(R)evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook. Greenpeace
International, European Renewable Energy Council; Mallon,
K., Bourne, G. & Mott, R. (2007) Climate Solutions: WWF’s
Vision for 2050, Gland,
Switzerland,
World Wildlife Fund.

(3) Binder, M.,
Janicke, M. & Petschow, U. (Eds.) (2001) Green Industrial Restructuring:
International Case Studies and Theoretic Interpretations, Berlin, Germany,
Springer

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