Green Sacrifice Zones, or Why a Green New Deal Cannot Ignore the Cost Shifts of Just Transitions
A Green New Deal could put severe pressure on lands held by Indigenous and marginalized communities and reshape their ecologies into “green sacrifice zones.” Such cost shifting risks reproducing a form of climate colonialism in the name of ‘just transition’. Avoiding cost shifts opens interdisciplinary research questions regarding land-use policy, economics, politics, and non-Eurocentric knowledge and leadership.
[Originally posted at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259033222030542X]
Envisioning an Environmentally Just Transition: A Case Study of the Democracy in Europe 2025’s Green New Deal Campaign for Societal Transformation
A 2021 thesis which concludes that the Green New Deal’s proposed societal transformation aims to emerge from within capitalist institutions but has the potential to develop into a more transformative and potentially counter-hegemonic reform at a later stage, in this sense resembling a non-reformist reform.
[Originally posted at https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/9046505]
Approaches to Energy Transitions: Carbon Pricing, Managed Decline, and/or Green New Deal?
A 2020 article which reviews three main approaches to energy transition and highlights their underlying goals and assumptions. It argues that movements for energy transition must center social and economic justice in their struggles if they want to gain broad-based appeal.
[Originally posted at https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gec3.12554]
Green New Deals: What Shapes Green and Deal?
A 2022 article which analyses how political processes have mutually shaped Green and Deal, involving tensions between system change versus continuity. The article is based on publicly available documents, with advice from some activists involved in Green New Deal (GND) agendas
[Originally posted at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2022.2062675]
What We Can Learn from the Green New Deal about the Importance of Equity in National Climate Policy
A 2021 article which argues that the Green New Deal (GND) is right to emphasize equity and justice as a key component of a broader strategy on climate change and energy transitions.
[Originally posted at https://energyjustice.indiana.edu/doc/jpampoint-counterpoint-konisky_carley_2021.pdf]
Necessary, Welcome or Dreaded? Insights on Low-Carbon Transitions from Unionized Energy Workers in the United States
A 2022 study where the researchers focus on in-depth interviews conducted in 2019 and 2020 with 48 labor union members and leaders in varied occupations from eight national unions located in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Energy workers’ views on climate change were varied, but contrary to stereotypes about blue-collar workers “climate skeptic” views were held by only a few.
[Originally posted at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629622000184]
Agrivoltaics Align with Green New Deal Goals While Supporting Investment in the US’ Rural Economy
A 2021 article which provides an upper-bound reduced-order cost estimate for widespread implementation of Agrivoltaic systems in the United States.
[Originally posted at https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/137]
The Green New Deal in the United States: What It Is and How to Pay for It
A 2020 report which outlines the main features of the US Green New Deal (GND) with Senator Bernie Sanders’ more detailed, fully costed version, exploring its implications for policymaking and social science-based energy research. We focus on two of its most striking characteristics: its macroeconomics; and its inextricable linkage of climate change mitigation and the reduction of economic inequality.
[Originally posted at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620301067]
Change Finance, Not the Climate
A 2020 book which has six chapters, each of which offers an assessment of proposals to reform the financial system. Every
chapter starts with a table that briefly summarizes the proposals that will be discussed, their proponents or examples of where they are being
implemented, their potential impact, achievability and any associated drawbacks. Six core recommendations (one per chapter) emerge as
priorities, but these are not the only proposals that merit being taken forward. Indeed, all of the measures discussed herein could contribute to
building a financial system that would be part of the solution to climate chaos, rather than part of the problem. Uprooting the monoculture of
financial capitalism and replacing it with a balanced financial ecosystem that sticks to planetary boundaries and respects social justice requires far more than uprooting a single tree.
[Originally posted at https://www.tni.org/en/changefinance]
A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy
A 2020 report offers community groups, policy advocates, and policymakers a pathway to solutions that work for frontline communities and workers.
[Originally posted at https://climatejusticealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ProtectRepairInvestTransformdoc22x.pdf]
A Green Economy Transition Program for South Korea
A 2022 study which outlines a workable climate stabilization framework for South Korea, building from the government’s own Green New Deal program as well as a number of related research studies, written by both government agencies and a range of independent researchers.
[Originally posted at https://peri.umass.edu/economists/robert-pollin/item/1594-a-green-economy-transition-program-for-south-korea]
Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition: A Wales TUC Toolkit for Trade Unionists
A 2021 toolkit which aims to provide information to help union officers and reps in Wales who want to take action on the climate emergency and negotiate for greener and fairer workplaces. It is designed to support the voice of workers and their unions.
[Originally posted at https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/greenerworkplaces_may21_2.pdf]
The Socio-Ecological Dimension of the EU Recovery: From the European Green Deal to the Recovery and Resilience Facility
A 2021 report which assesses the socio-ecological dimension of the EU’s recovery strategy from the COVID-19 crisis, and identifies elements of continuity and change compared to the pre-pandemic EU growth strategy. Several possible social challenges related to the green transition are acknowledged in the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
[Originally posted at https://eurosocial.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/24_Socio-Ecological-EN.pdf]
Financing a Just Transition in Ireland
A 2020 report which explores a number of key questions that are central to the discussion on climate action:
1. What are the main economic, political and public policy trends relating to climate action in Ireland, and what are their social implications?
2. What would an ambitious state-led investment strategy in a Green New Deal and ‘just transition’ consist of?
3. What role does the Irish financial sector play in facilitating or inhibiting the fight against climate breakdown? And what needs to be done to transform private finance in Ireland to ensure that it plays a more supportive role?
[Originally posted at http://trademarkbelfast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Financing-a-Just-Transition-in-Ireland-1.pdf]
Priorities and Challenges of the EU Energy Transition: From the European Green Package to the New Green Deal
A 2020 paper which seeks to present both priorities and challenges for of the EU energy transition. It outlines the key targets and initiatives
proposed and set by the European institutions in relation to the energy matters.
[Originally posted at https://rujec.org/article/55375/]
Four Case Studies on Just Transition: Lessons for Ireland
A 2020 report, which runs an analysis of transitions away from fossil-fuel-based regional employment in Australia’s Latrobe Valley, Scotland’s Just Transition Commission and Germany’s Ruhr Valley and Lausitz/Lusatia, finds that an inclusive, iterative, place-based, context-specific approach enabled by public investment provides the best outcomes, including the creation of low-carbon employment alternatives.
[Originally posted http://files.nesc.ie/nesc_research_series/Research_Series_Paper_15_TTCaseStudies.pdf]