Issue: Environmental/Climate Justice

This interactive webinar covered the process of how this collaboration between environmental justice and labor forces was facilitated, how they built a shared vision around resilience, a rundown of the report’s key findings, and a guided activity for how to apply the report’s insights to participants’ local communities and organizing work.

For clean energy engagement with (English speaking) Latino parents on Facebook, testing suggests, cities (rather than school districts) make for campaign targets that garner more support. Additionally, use low-production value videos (text cards & stock footage) rather than high-production value videos (with custom footage and interviews): they produced similar action rates, and in addition to being more cost effective, the low production value videos had higher viewership rates, and can be quicker to make. This research was conducted as part of a field research grant to Climate Parents from the Climate Advocacy Lab.

The concept of a “just transition” has permeated mainstream discourse, yet those who will likely be most impacted by the energy transition – frontline workers and their communities – have mostly been excluded from the conversation. This report, derived from over 100 listening sessions and interviews with workers and frontline community members, encourages policymakers to:

Go Big: Be guided by a just transition vision that is ambitious and comprehensive in order to address the scope of impacts for affected communities and industries. Job creation, labor standards, and workers’ rights must be included.
Go Wide: Impacts from economic transitions can be felt in a number of ways, from financial to social to psychological. Policymakers should engage with existing social infrastructure such as labor unions, frontline community groups, and Indigenous nations to make sure support is readily available.
Go Far: While the climate crisis is urgent, just transition plans must not be fixated on the short-term. Instead, policymakers should include long-term commitments to workers and their communities as part of their vision and take into account differences in generational needs between older, established workers and those just entering the workforce.

In addition, the report addresses how labor and advocacy organizations need to develop authentic, trusting relationships with each other to build political and policy alignment around just transition goals. One way to start is to establish and expand internal committees and capacities to understand each other’s issues and perspectives.