Labour on the leading edge: A critical review of labour rights and standards in renewable energy

Abstract

The two-pronged crisis of climate change and increasingly precarious work force us to explore how an energy transition that mitigates the worst impacts of climate change can simultaneously uplift workers and communities.As the body of literature concerning itself with various aspects of the energy transition expands, a smaller, but growing subset of research explores work quality affiliated with low-carbon, renewable energy technologies. Recognizing this, I ask two interrelated questions. First, what do we know about labor rights and standards across value chains for low-carbon, renewable energy technologies? Related to the first question, what stages of the value chain, geographies, and critical dimensions (i.e., gender and migration) need greater attention? To address this gap, this study systematically collects and organizes the emergent academic and grey literatures that investigate labor rights and standards in the renewable energy transition.This review uses a global value chain framework to organize existing knowledge and identify gaps. It subsequently summarizes these findings before proceeding to synthesize the assembled corpus of literature. In so doing, the paper identifies several themes within the literature, as well as future avenues of exploration. First, labour rights and standards and questions of work quality remain marginal to the broader energy transitions discourse, despite their recognized importance.Many studies provide macro-level assessments of labour rights and standards in the renewable energy industry. Several also cover labour rights and standards for renewables in specific value chain stages and workplace contexts. Fewer, however, seek to understand the labour rights and standards of workers across value chain stages. Second, two major spheres of literature concerning labour rights and standards in renewables appear to be operating in parallel, but distinct tracks. One concerns itself with attention to workers in the Global South and those working in the peripheries of global political economy. The other covers workers in the Global North and what the prospects of the energy transition might portend for the labour movement. Recognizing these two overarching findings, we have a need for future research that bridges value chain stages to understand the differentiated impacts on worker's labour rights and standards across geographies and national contexts.