Learning from the New York Experiment: Managing a Just Transition to a Low-Carbon Future

Learning from the New York Experiment: Managing a Just Transition to a Low-Carbon Future

J. Mijin Cha

Just transition is a core pillar of the Green New Deal, as is evidenced by the justice and equity focus of the resolution and the emphasis on creating high-quality jobs to replace lost fossil fuel jobs. In contrast to climate policies focusing only on carbon reduction, a commitment to just transition addresses the social and economic consequences of de-carbonization. For example, just transition requires that climate policies be designed to address the negative impacts from de-carbonization on workers and communities and include measures to mitigate these impacts.

In particular, ignoring the impact of de-carbonization on fossil fuel workers exacerbates the tensions between labor unions and environmental/climate advocates– two movements that are stronger together than when at odds. In the past, the rhetoric of, “jobs versus the environment,” increased the distrust between workers and environmentalists by emphasizing the class divide between working class union members and middle-class environmentalists. For a just transition, the loss of relatively high-paying jobs due to de-carbonization must be addressed. Creating good, family-sustaining jobs in the low carbon economy provides displaced fossil fuel workers with alternative jobs and breaks the false dichotomy that there can either be job opportunities or a healthy environment. 

The Climate Jobs New York Initiative

The Climate Jobs New York (CJNY) campaign provides an empirical example of how to decarbonize while also protecting workers and communities.  In the Spring of 2015, the Worker Institute at Cornell University launched an initiative called, “Labor Leading on Climate.” The goal of the initiative was to create a climate jobs campaign led by the labor movement that would present a proactive vision for transitioning to a low-carbon future that centered on workers and not only carbon reduction. Similar to other advances for worker protection, with labor unions at the center, the goal was to tap into the political power of unions to advance policies that would help all workers, not just union members.

The initiative targeted outreach to specific unions, in particular the building trades, transit, and public sector unions. These unions were chosen because they would be most directly impacted by de-carbonization, as well as job creation efforts. In NYC alone, there are 100,000 building trades members. While not all of these workers will be directly impacted, the size of the membership of just the building trades indicates the scope of workers that could be affected.

For example, within the building trades are unions that represent fossil fuel industry workers, and therefore their members would be displaced in the transition away from fossil fuels. In order to build support, alternative jobs must be created to offer opportunity to displaced workers. With a targeted climate jobs program, the building trades could see much of the job creation spurred on by the transition to a low-carbon economy, as much of the work created by infrastructure upgrades and renewable energy build out can be done by their members. While there is no guarantee that displaced workers will be placed in new jobs, implementing targeted policy to drive the demand side for jobs provides more opportunity for displaced workers to transition to jobs created by climate policy.

Consultative Process and Co-Design of policies

Over the course of 18 months, a series of one-on-one meetings with key labor stakeholders and several group meetings generated a series of proposals to meaningfully reduce carbon dioxide emissions and ensure family-sustaining job creation in the buildings, energy, and transportation sector. The resulting proposals were released in July 2016 in the report, “Reversing Inequality, Combatting Climate Change: A Climate Jobs Program for New York State.” After the report release, an advocacy effort, Climate Jobs NY (CJNY), was launched to operationalize the policy proposals. In June 2017, Governor Cuomo announced, in partnership with the Worker Institute and Climate Jobs NY, the Clean Climate Careers Initiative, based on three goals: investing in clean teach and substantial development of renewable energy, creating clean climate careers, and advancing environmental justice.

The first phase of the initiative includes a $1.5 billion investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and installing solar on public buildings and the creation of 40,000 climate jobs. The careers prong explicitly states the creation of “well-paying” jobs. Adding to these commitments, the Governor announced a 9 GW offshore wind target that includes a project labor agreement, which helps promote the use of union labor. Combined with the commitment to creating well-paying jobs within the Clean Climate Careers initiative, these policies link the importance of creating good jobs to carbon reduction efforts.

There can be no guarantee that displaced fossil fuel workers will be placed directly into the newly created jobs but the likelihood can be greatly increased by implementing demand-side policies, such as renewable energy production targets, and aligning them with training programs or transition programs so displaced workers are trained for and placed in low-carbon careers. New York has taken the first step towards a just transition by implementing carbon reduction policies that also have a demand-side job creation effect with an explicit commitment to family-sustaining wages.

The New York state example also shows how state-level actions can lead the way on climate policy. The size of renewable energy procurement and energy efficiency measures are substantial enough to create jobs to help mitigate the employment losses from de-carbonization within the state. Moreover, the explicit emphasis on job-quality within the carbon reduction policy strengthens the link between the two and helps ensure the creation of jobs that pay family-sustaining wages to replace the relatively high-paying fossil fuel jobs

J. Mijin Cha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College.