Today on the People Planet Prosperity Podcast, Canada Action founder Cody Battershill and Lynn Exner, Chief Operating Officer of Canada Action are back again, this time to discuss the meaning of just transition and how it can be implemented. Together, they stress that as Canada takes climate action, the people in high emission industries, communities, and jobs should be kept at the very heart of the discussion and not left behind.

Cody and Lynn begin by defining what just transition is and isn't, and go back in time to the term's origin. They address the extremist position that just transition is about the end of oil and gas and advocate for people who live and work in high emitting industries to be kept at the forefront of the just transition discussion. They then zoom in on what the roadmap to transitioning to a lower emission economy ought to look like and who should be involved in developing and implementing just transition. Lynn stresses the need to educate people in high emitting industrial communities about how this is their chance to participate meaningfully in moving to a low carbon economy without seeing the end of the industry that allows them to thrive. Cody then discusses the need to exercise caution to ensure that just transition does not turn into unjust substitution. All in all, today our hosts encourage listeners, as resource workers and supporters of resource families, to step up and let their voices regarding just transition be heard. This episode was recorded on November 19th, 2021.

To learn more about supporting Canada's vital natural resource sector, please visit CanadaAction.ca.

Episode Highlights:

· The meaning and origin of just transition.

· A roadmap to transitioning to a lower emission economy.

· Who should be involved in developing and implementing just transition?

· The United Nations' alarming reports on climate change.

· The dependence on the natural resource sector and the affordable, reliable fuels we get from fossil fuels.

· How to ensure that as we take action on climate, we don't lose ground on good and decent jobs, access to clean, affordable, reliable energy, and everything impacting healthcare, education, and prosperity in a nation.

· The need for people to read the source documents themselves from the IPCC and United Nations to avoid deception.

· The focus of just transition on the worker and the communities.

· The transition off of thermal coal as an energy source in Canada.

· The Canadian government's failure in implementing best practices and recommendations in the just transition process for thermal coal as well as lessons learned

· Congress of Parties 24 and its goals.

· CCUS, as a pillar of NetZero and decarbonization, continues to support homegrown innovation and technology and the collaboration that's happening in Canada in the resource, oil, and gas space.

· Addressing the fallacy that just transition means to totally come off of oil and gas and fossil fuels.

· It is essential to educate people in high emitting industrial communities and encourage them to participate meaningfully in moving to a low carbon economy without seeing the end of their industry.

· Reaching out to communities and trying to counteract the drumbeat of negativity and doom regarding just transition.

· The workers in the community need to be at the heart of just transition.

· Figuring out the best ways to keep communities thriving and surviving while removing emissions.

· Avoiding unjust substitution.

Quotes

"Transitioning to a lower emission economy is obviously important to all of us. However, it is not something that's going to happen overnight."

"You cannot have climate action be successful if half the population feels threatened by those policies."

"The principles of just transition that are important to discuss are that when you move to a low carbon economy, that you maintain the same quantity and quality of jobs in a community."

"Just transition says that I should not, as an energy worker, have to take all the burden of the cost of this transition, and other people in Canada don't face any of those burdens."

"I think the biggest piece for me on the activism is that it should be those people most impacted that have a say and that are central to what is going on."

"That is the whole point behind the just transition principle. It is, at the very heart is the worker, is the community, where you give them the tools and the resources to decarbonize their own communities in ways that make sense."

"If we're not careful, instead of a just transition, we will end up with unjust substitution."

"For those of you who are feeling that just transition is perhaps a threat to your livelihood, I would encourage you to look a little more carefully. This is an opportunity for those workers who work in these industries to be at the center and to be masters of their own future."

"Workers themselves should be at the focus, not those people from maybe urban centers or communities that are not as directly impacted. This is the portion where the resource worker is at the heart."

Links:

Canada Action CanadaAction.ca