Just Cessation: How Might the Climate Imperative to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Extraction Reshape the Concept of Just Transition?

Abstract

Just transition has emerged as a master conceptual framework for limiting environmental and socially destructive industrial activity in the climate change era. While it has been widely embraced, its anchoring in the open-ended concept of sustainable development has meant that it has been used to legitimate ongoing future fossil fuel extraction. This article discusses the implications for just transition that arise from the recognition that the timely cessation of fossil fuel extraction is the sine qua non of the realization of the sustainable development goals. It offers a historical explanation for the minimal engagement to date between just transition advocacy and fossil fuel cessation. It then discusses the implications of acknowledging the necessity of fossil fuel cessation in terms of core labour law principles. Finally, the article outlines the implications of explicitly embedding fossil fuel phase down as an objective of just transition for government actors and social partners. Just Transition, Climate Change, Labour Law, Sustainable Development Goals, Anti- Fossil Fuel Norms, Industrial Relations, Unions, Environment, Supply-Side Environmental Policies, Hugo Sinzheimer