Overcoming Five Key Challenges to Make the Energy Transition a Just Labor Transition

Delivering on the Paris Agreement’s global temperature goal requires a rapid transition toward net-zero emissions. Climate neutrality will demand a comprehensive overhaul of energy, transportation, housing, agriculture, and manufacturing within under three decades. This structural shift will profoundly affect workers and communities, requiring avoidance of the painful adjustments seen with globalization and automation that led to concentrated job losses and economic distress. This commentary examines the Just Labor Transition from a mainstream economic perspective, focusing on policies supporting workers and communities through the energy transition; finally, it constitutes an important aspect of the broader literature on Just Energy Transitions and offers a complementary perspective to frameworks grounded in other social science disciplines.