Opinion: Enough denial; Alberta should start talking about a just transition

AMERICAN ANTI WOKEISM

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has denounced the federal government’s proposed Just Transition Act as “divisive, polarizing language” that is merely “virtue signalling to an extreme base.”

A worker walks past a Caterpillar 797 heavy hauler at a machine shop at Syncrude Canada, north of Fort McMurray, Alta., on Tuesday August 15, 2017. Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray

Opinion by Keith Stewart • Edmonton Journal

This will come as a surprise to the scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who used the term “just transition” over 300 times in their 2022 report on climate solutions . Just transition is also one of the core principles in the International Energy Agency’s road map for getting to net zero.

The IPCC defines a just transition as “a set of principles, processes and practices aimed at ensuring that no people, workers, places, sectors, countries or regions are left behind in the move from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy. It includes respect and dignity for vulnerable groups; creation of decent jobs; social protection; employment rights; fairness in energy access and use and social dialogue and democratic consultation with relevant stakeholders … . A Just Transition entails targeted and proactive measures from governments, agencies, and other non-state authorities to ensure that any negative social, environmental, or economic impacts of economy-wide transitions are minimized, whilst benefits are maximized for those disproportionally affected.”

This is not a new idea. I’ve been involved in discussions between the Canadian labour and environmental movements on just transition policies since the mid-1990s, and in recent years governments around the world have begun implementing them .

Related video: Federal 'just transition' memo sparks outrage in Alberta (cbc.ca) 

Duration 8:24    View on Watch

What we’ve learned is that good transition policies are about making decisions with people, not for them. It’s about looking at who — workers, communities and Indigenous nations — might be affected by the energy transition and how. It’s about listening to their fears, but also their visions of possible futures. In spite of the premier’s rhetoric, most Albertans believe that the transition away from oil and gas will be good for their economy in the long run.

Bad transition policies flow from denying that the shift away from fossil fuels is happening. As much as some in the oil patch would like to believe that global demand for oil will grow endlessly, that’s not in the cards. According to the IEA’s most recent World Energy Outlook , demand for fossil fuels will soon peak and then decline even in the absence of new climate policies. How fast we make the transition to clean energy will be determined by the policies we adopt, but the economics, and increasingly energy security concerns, are driving us towards a fossil-free future. The choice is between a just and unjust transition, not whether or not to have one.

Yet denial seems to be at the core of the Alberta government’s opposition to even talking about a just transition. Environment Minister Sonya Savage, who was a registered lobbyist for pipeline companies for 14 years prior to getting into politics, said that just transition measures were a “non-starter” for Alberta because “it means phasing out fossil fuels immediately, keeping it in the ground. Even more than that, it means restructuring societies and economies and redistributing wealth.”

The truth is that we don’t yet know how the Trudeau government intends to implement its 2019 election promise to bring in a Just Transition Act. But the evidence shows that it could be of greatest benefit to regions like Alberta that are currently highly invested in the extraction and processing of fossil fuels.

The chances of federal measures being good for Alberta would rise dramatically if the provincial government would at least talk about how to deal with the transition to a low-carbon economy, rather than sticking their fingers in their ears and denying it could ever happen.

Keith Stewart is a senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada. He also teaches a course on energy policy at the University of Toronto

The world is moving to net-zero. How do we make it fair?

We commissioned a poll that shows that 88% of fossil fuel workers are interested in training and upskilling to transition to a net-zero economy. 

As the Canadian government resumes its Just Transition consultations, we want to ensure that the outcomes they propose match what workers actually want and need.

JUST TRANSITION IRON & EARTH

Politicians and business leaders seem to dominate the conversation around energy transition and climate change. But at the end of the day it's our livelihoods that are impacted.

That’s why we started Community Conversations, a series of small group conversations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland - all places deeply impacted by a transitioning economy.

For those of you living in downtown Edmonton, will you join us this Saturday, January 21st so that we can hear about what matters most to you?

We’ll take the results of all of these sessions and amplify your voices to political, business, and funding stakeholders across Canada so that the voices of the community are heard loud and clear.

It’s important to us that anyone who wants to participate can, so we have compensation available as well as reimbursements for transportation and childcare costs.

RSVP Here

For those of you not in Edmonton, help us to spread the word by sharing this work on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

At the end of our Community Conversation series we’ll be able to share powerful lessons with our leaders: where do communities have common goals? When do we need to nuance support for regional differences? We can only make economic transitions that support working people if we’ve first heard from them, and that’s what these sessions are all about.

With thanks,
Ana Guerra Marin
Communities Director & Just Transition Lead
Iron & Earth
http://www.ironandearth.org/