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 energy as world leaders attempt to lure developing economies away from fossil fuels.

The deal, which includes $10bn in public funding and a further $10bn from private sector investors, was unveiled during the G20 meetings in Bali on Tuesday following more than a year of negotiations between leaders.

As part of the agreement, Indonesia has pledged to cap power sector emissions at 290 megatons of CO₂ annually by 2030, and to generate about a third of its power from renewable sources by 2030. Indonesia is a coal-producing nation and one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters…

The country agreed that its power sector would achieve net zero by 2050. The “Just Energy Transition Partnership” offers a mix of concessional finance, grants and loans from the US, Japan, Canada, the UK and several European countries, including the EU and Norway.

We’ve highlighted the use of the words “Just” and “Transition”. Two points here.

First, $20 billion is chump change in the scheme of a country the size of Indonesia (in land mass and population). And it’s particularly revealing that only half of the pot is in public funding—and we don’t know how much of the “mix” is a grant versus loans.

Second, and relevant to our mission, the announcement of the package uses the words “Just” and “Transition” but is aimed almost entirely at shifting the energy systems but, on the face of it, there is no money allocated to support workers—either through real re-skilling or a commitment to future jobs with incomes equal to, or better, than existing jobs.

This is the kind of use of “Just” and “Transition” that ensures hollowed out communities.