Dundee Just Transition Hub

Tay Bridge on a sunny day with sandy shore nearby

The Just Transition Hub promotes interdisciplinary research, teaching and scholarship on issues related to just transition to a lower carbon economy. Bringing together the academic and non-academic communities, the Hub enables the development of alternative epistemologies and methodological approaches to inform research, teaching and practices on just transition.

Why have a just transition hub?

One of the greatest challenges of our time is how society develops a low-carbon economy. Our world is at risk of runaway climate change and for many there is a climate emergency. The solution is to develop low-carbon economies around the world. However, these must happen in a ‘just’ way where equity, equality, fairness, and inclusiveness are features of this transition.

In this context, Governments around the world are bringing in policy on the just transition. Here in the UK that is happening, more locally in Scotland where a national Just Transition Commission has been established. Further the British Academy has declared that a just transition is vital to society and is actively promoting research on the issue with ambitious plans for research growth in the area.

Despite all this increasing attention that the topic of just transition receives, despite the wakening of politicians to the topic, despite the increasing literature, there is a lack of proper attention to the need of new interdisciplinary, epistemological, and methodological approaches for both research and education for just transition. The lack of attention to the need for new approaches impact on the potential of the research and teaching on the topic. To an extent, this derives from the fact that too many scholars from outside of the energy community have not realized the importance of the topic for their own research, and that teachers have not realized the importance of incorporating the topic to pedagogical resources.

The Hub aims at increasing critical mass about the topic and, what is more, at answering this extremely important question: Which new research and teaching approaches are needed to respond to the ubiquity of just transition?

Main activities

The Just Transition Hub organises and hosts the following activities

  • Interdisciplinary Conferences and Seminars on Just Transition, which bring speakers from within and outside of the academia, from across the globe, to discuss new methodological approaches and topics of relevance to increase critical mass and inform transformative practices.
  • TERRAE Workshops, which bring civil society and academics to debate specific problems within the theme of just transition to a lower carbon economy.
  • Education for Just Transition, which is an ongoing research project with the objective of thinking and developing pedagogies for just transition.

Coming events

The Just Transition Hub, directed by Sufyan Droubi, Fernando Lannes Fernandes and Edzia Carvalho, is launching the TERRA Talks, with the objective of promoting the discussion of topics relevant to just transition.

9 October 2024, 15:00-16:30 

The first talk will be delivered by Prof Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter, and will address positive tipping points. Prof Lenton has more than 25 years research experience, focused on modelling of the biosphere, climate, biogeochemical cycles, and associated tipping points. In 2023, Professor Lenton led a team of more than 200 people from over 90 organisations in 26 countries to produce an authoritative assessment of the risks and opportunities of both negative and positive tipping points in the Earth system and society. The ‘Global Tipping Points Report’ produced in partnership with Bezos Earth Fund was published at COP28. 

4 December 2024, 15:00-16:30

The second talk will be delivered by Dr Joana Setzer, LSE, and will address just transition litigation. Dr Setzer’s areas of expertise are climate litigation and global environmental governance. Since 2020 she leads the Grantham Research Institute’s Climate Change Laws of the World. Joana served as a Contributing Author for Working Group 3 of IPCC AR6. She regularly advises a range of international, governments and non-governmental organisations. Joana is also co-Chair of the Climate Accountability working group of the Climate Social Science Network. 

All talks are delivered in hybrid format, and speakers will join online, to ensure inclusivity and sustainability. The organisers invite up to 25 people from the SHSL to join us at the Main Library Fairlie Room, to watch the talks together and continue with the discussion afterwards. Those willing to join us, and those who would like to receive the supporting materials in preparation for the talks, please contact us through [email protected]. We will send invitations with further details and the links to join online, and reminders as we approach the talks.

Past events

The 2021 Symposium on ‘New Approaches to Just Transition’ was organized by the Dundee Just Transition Hub via live webcast on 25th June 2021. The symposium brought together over 20 panellists and 200 attendees from different parts of the world and from different backgrounds ranging from academia, NGOs, and UN agencies. See the report here.

Conference on Just Transition, Security, and the Law. May 18-19, 2023. Dundee. Registration opens 10 March 2023. Find out more about the conference.

Want to learn more about just transition?

The following papers will help you understand the main aspects of the academic debate about just transition:

  • Darren McCauley, Raphael Heffron, Just transition: Integrating climate, energy and environmental justice, Energy Policy, Volume 119, 2018, Pages 1-7, ISSN 0301-4215, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.04.014.
  • Sheila Jasanoff, Just transitions: A humble approach to global energy futures, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 35,  2018, Pages 11-14, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.11.025.
  • Sufyan Droubi, Raphael J. Heffron, Darren McCauley, A critical review of energy democracy: A failure to deliver justice?, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 86, 2022, 102444, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102444.
  • Xinxin Wang, Kevin Lo, Just transition: A conceptual review, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 82, 2021, 102291, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102291.

Team

Directors

Associates

Researchers

  • Ruth Lelei
  • Naiara C N de Souza

Partners

STEM Education Hub

Institute Maria and João Aleixo

International Investment in Latin America Network