DATELINE—EUROPE-U.S.: The Missing Piece In A “Buyers Club”
We’ve been following the back-and-forth spat across the Atlantic pond between the members of the European Union and the United States over subsidies offered by the U.S. in the Inflation Reduction Act to “Made-in-America” products, especially in the electric vehicle space. Now, there’s talk of forming a EU-U.S. so-called “buyers club” for critical materials used […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #12, 03/27/2023
Leading Off: The IPCC Has Blinders On Right after the most recent global climate change gathering, known as COP 27, we wrote the following about the entire framework of the climate summits and its related forums: ….workers just don’t explicitly figure into the calculations of the parties gathering in the negotiating rooms who bicker over […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #11, 03/13/2023
Leading Off: Is Free Trade A “High Wage” Plan for New Zealand? In our second issue of this newsletter, we raised the question whether so-called “free trade” has played a significant role in exacerbating the climate crisis by encouraging hyper-growth, lowering wage standards and reducing national environmental conditions—and whether the current trading regime is compatible […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #10, 02/27/2023
Leading Off: Canada’s “Sustainable Jobs Plan” Over the past several years, Canada has had a fairly active debate about Just Transition for workers, and communities. For example, in 2018, a national taskforce produced this report outlining steps to be taken and, crucially, noting the process: …will need to invest considerably more funding, potentially in the […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #9, 02/13/2023
Leading Off: Greene County—Canary In the Coal Mine It’s a bit of a cliche, we acknowledge , to use the “canary in the coal mine” slogan—but, here, it actually fits. As our regular readers know, in these spaces, when we speak about the need for a “high bar” Just Transition, we always emphasize to keep […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #8, 01/30/2023
Leading Off: Tax Dollars For Workers, Or For Profitable Companies? In our last issue, we touched on the question of the poor use of public money when it comes to economic development, which obviously is at the heart of how to clinch a “high bar” Just Transition for workers—without economic development that values good-paying jobs, […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #7, 01/16/2023
Leading Off: Red Flag—Mercedes Benz, MN8 & Ionity A repository of future jobs in the so-called “green economy” is certainly in the electric vehicle (EV) industry and, as important, the offshoot products to support EVs. Chief among the support system will naturally be charging stations because, obviously, you have to have enough power to be […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #6, 1/2/2023
[Editorial note: due to the end-of-year holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s, the bi-weekly newsletter scheduled for 12-26 is being published today. The newsletter will continue on its bi-weekly timetable. We extend best wishes for 2023] Leading Off: The Ultium Union Vote And Its Meaning For Just Transition The call for “Just Transition” is […]
DATELINE—EUROPE: Trade Rules Threaten Again
In Issue #2 of our newsletter, we warned that global trade rules posed a a grave threat to climate change efforts and, to the subject we address here as our mission, will scuttle even modest attempts at ensuring a worker- and community-centric Just Transition. After all, the so-called “free trade” regime, built over half a […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #5, 12/12/2022
Leading Off: Is Sparkz A Just Transition Model? In May 2022, the United Mine Workers of America reached an agreement with Sparkz, a battery manufacturer, to employ union members at the company’s planned factory in West Virginia. The site, a 482,000-square-foot (4.5-hectare) plant in Taylor County off U.S. Route 50 near Bridgeport, is slated to […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #4, 11/28/2022
Leading Off: For Workers, COP27 Lives Up To Low Expectations [Editorial Note: we are devoting this issue to various aspects of COP27] Though hardly surprising, COP27 made it abundantly clear that workers just don’t explicitly figure into the calculations of the parties gathering in the negotiating rooms who bicker over the details of climate change. […]
DATELINE—EGYPT: COP27 Is A Bust For Workers
We will discuss this at length in the next newsletter with *exclusive* reports from people who were there—SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss it—but it’s pretty easy to say now that
DATELINE—BALI: An Empty Promise For Indonesian Workers
A recurring theme here will be: calling out the false use of “Just Transition”. Today’s example hails from the G20 meetings in Bali. Per the Financial Times (reported elsewhere, as well): Wealthy nations led by the US and Japan have offered Indonesia a $20bn package to help pay for the coal-dependent country’s shift to renewable […]
Just Transition Insights, Issue #3, 11/14/2022
Leading Off: Transforming Energy Systems If you read our Guiding Philosophy, you noted this passage: Just Transition means evaluating how energy, and other social goods (such as clean water and clear air), are equally shared. In the future, access to electricity will increasingly require broad democratic rights to establish more publicly-owned energy resources to deliver […]
DATELINE—SOUTH AFRICA: Rich Countries Coming Up Short
Watch our next newsletter to dive into this a bit more. The North-South divide when it comes to Just Transition is getting wider, this via the Financial Times: The South African government has criticised the structure of an $8.5bn finance package provided by developed countries to help it shift from coal to clean energy, saying […]
DATELINE—U.S.: How Will You Know?
It’s pretty much a mystery, if you survey the landscape around the world: what do those promised “green jobs”, the jobs that millions of workers who will lose jobs to de-carbonization are being told to expect, pay? Hard to know except through random anecdotes. Which might be, then, a reason to press for similar legislation […]