LIST OF PANELS

The process of a Just Transition – achieving sustainability transitions in a way that is “just" to the workers and communities involved, ensuring no one is left behind – is rapidly becoming a guiding concept for the transformation that is occurring in many sectors across economies including in energy, industry and natural resource management. A Just Transition ensures that while working towards a more ecologically sound economy, we also plan for positive outcomes for those communities and people negatively affected by our global efforts to decarbonise. The unequal distribution of positive and negative effects means that just transition ‘hotspots’ will exist, and that the policy mix to address a just transition will need to be specific to these contexts (ASEAN, 2021).

This process will be policy-driven and across multiple levels to ensure:

·       business and sectors are encouraged to become more sustainable

·       that we have sufficient skills development and an adequate workforce to deliver the transition

·       that women’s and other marginalised groups unequal participation in labour markets and skills acquisition is addressed

·       that social protection is available to workers and communities that are negatively affected by transition

The policy mix for promoting just transition, is broad, encompassing many policy fields including development and employment policy, energy policy, industry policy, training and skills development, as well as sectoral level policies and policies at different jurisdictional levels. This means that policy coherence and coordination are also critical issues.

The objective of the special session is to contribute to a better understanding of the context and drivers of transition and the factors of ‘just’ transition in the Asia Pacific region. With many of the countries in the region also pursuing sustainable development agendas to achieve quality employment (decent work), adequate social protection systems and poverty reduction alongside decarbonisation goals. At the same time the Asia-Pacific region – particularly low and middle incomes countries and Small Island Developing States are also managing increasing climate impacts, with the region one of the most climate vulnerable areas in the world.   

Just transition planning is a new skill set for policy makers (ASEAN 2021). Just transition planning and implementation are emerging policy issues in many countries in Asia-Pacific region. New policy models and combinations of policy mechanisms will be required. This Panel aims to identify what policy elements are needed and what is already in place to support just transition and how just transition can be operationalised to address social development goals and remedy longstanding inequalities in labour markets and livelihoods.

The combination of socio-economic context and policy development and implementation capacity, together with the region’s high climate vulnerability highlights the need for a unique and context specific approach to the just transition policy and practice mix. This policy mix will need to diverge from the examples presented in Europe and the US. The scale and pace of change required to rapidly decarbonise economies and to do this in a way that is just means that there is significant interest and need for peer learning – to understand options and examples and share knowledge both with policy and academic communities. 

This session invites papers and discussions that investigate the progress of just transition policy and planning in the Asia-Pacific region, including:

-        Contextualising just transitions processes in the region

-        Identify and analyse policy mixes supporting just transition in sectors

-        Identify and discuss the role of specific actors and groups of actors in just transition processes and how under-represented groups can be empowered

-        The role of social dialogue processes and how these can shape the direction of plans and investments

-        Examples of transition pathways for impacted communities to new employment and livelihoods, especially when obvious low carbon industrial activities are not readily available.

-        Investigate how gender transformative change can be accelerated through just transition processes.

-        Mechanisms and examples of policy coordination and coherence for just transition.

Papers should aim for 5,000 words with contributions highlighting particularly examples of just transition policy development/ or implementation in the Asia Pacific region, comparative examples would be particularly welcome.

Papers can be presented in -person or through hybrid format.