Solar-powered appliances can also play an important role in levelling the playing field for women and girls, people with disabilities, and vulnerable groups such as refugees.
Access to modern energy and appropriate appliances can have a transformative impact on women’s lives. Due to their user-friendly design, solar mills can free women from the drudgery associated with manually processing grain, giving them time to engage in income-generating activities. Moreover, over one billion people need one or more assistive products, which can help them to lead a healthy and productive life. Innovations such as visual and audio cues on appliance function buttons can improve the accessibility of appliances for blind or deaf people.
Am I right in anticipating that the lifecycle cost may be lower, but the upfront cost higher? If so have you seen commercial financing schemes available? This is something I usually see in more of a ‘circular economy’ framing but very mindful about scalable solutions
South Africa has good government-led processes on Just Transition - the negotiations in NEDLAC (social dialogue!), the Presidential Coordinating Commission on Climate Change. And this agreement between US construction unions and Ørsted is a great example of Just Transition and making the new jobs good jobs NABTU and Orsted Sign Landmark MOU for US Offshore Wind Workforce Transition
I agree with you. We can’t ignore the positive impact in terms of inclusivity, that being forced to move to remote comms had. Digital technology has allowed more people from more diverse context to get into the picture and participate more in the discussions taken place.
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This is what social dialogue + a parallel multistakeholder process are all about. We have pretty good rules for this in Europe at different levels but also in SA and other jurisdictions.
We have an report upcoming in the next few weeks called ‘Just Nature’ which will be exploring the just transition ramifications and considerations of transitions with forests and land use, for biodiversity conservation and the broad nature dimension.
This will be published here: Publications Archive - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment
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In our last few mins can i ask you all to give us a final wrap up comment - one key takeaway , call to action.
When talking about appliances, more efficient appliances may have a higher upfront cost (materials, manufacturing process, research and development of new tech, etc) but as are more efficient, the running costs are lower. The key point is to assess the lifecycle holistically.
Social dialogue is the key, and there’s no social dialogue without unions and employers. Nothing about us, without us …
This is complex! In the course of this discussion we’ve ranged all over the place, and I think spent as much time on things which are not just transition as things which are. What I’ve learnt are that we always need to come back to the community voices experiencing the transition, ensure we can listen to and understand those voices, and to keep solutions simple and accessible rather than layering on complexity.
We have talked a bit about transparency, research, access to data, funding, innovation, tech and stakeholder engagement - so for me, the key takeaway is the importance of ‘connecting the dots’ (something I often bang on about)… how we need to collaborate as much as possible with all the stakeholders across the whole value chain in order to link the people with the challenges with the people who might have the solutions… and everything in between!
Collective Action is key so we can work across sectors to build trust, understand how we can collectively advance impact and solve challenges.
Massive thanks to all of our panel today. So many rich insights. We will be circulating a summary to everyone soon. Our next session in this series is on May 5th - please do join us for a deep dive into DE&I and climate change. How can we put diversity and inclusion at the heart of climate action to spread the benefits and burdens fairly?
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As companies approach their Just Transition we would really encourage them to look around for coalitions like ours that can act as a community of learning and support. We’re always astonished at how the pace of change can be accelerated.
From a financial sector pov - There is a huge opportunity to integrate considerations of the just transition within net zero transition plans. The Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero requires all members to publish plans by the end of 2023. So, a call to action - integrate the JT within those financial sector and real economy plans.
The discussion and dialogue around Just Transition will continue to evolve, and its important to consider a range of aspects, for example ecosystems and value chain approaches to social impacts as much as climate/emission reductions
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And some good input here from CDC and Clifford Chance on what that means in practice for banks - cliffordchance.com/content/dam/cliffordchance/PDF/just-transactions-whitepaper.pdf
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Working in partnerships, thinking holistically and being inclusive will lead to a stronger and skilled workforce.
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We the panellists and participants should collaborate on all these great ideas.
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*** Thanks for joining everyone. We’ll be leaving this discussion open, so please do continue to post your comments.***
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You can find details of our next discussions, here: Business and Climate Justice - Business Fights Poverty