Why a local approach to the just transition is so important — and so effective

Solutions to the planetary crisis and that deliver a just transition can only work if they are grounded in local communities and address local needs. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto
- Planetary health is a global problem, but the most impactful solutions are local.
- Three key elements make up effective local solutions: inclusion, agency and accountability.
- Communities, cities and countries all have a role to play in this.
We are facing a global emergency. As Johan Rockström said in unveiling the Planetary Boundary Health Check in September, “The overall diagnostic is that the patient, Planet Earth, is in critical condition. Six of nine Planetary Boundaries are transgressed.” Our Earth is in trouble.
Despite the global nature of these interconnected crises, any solution to tackle them needs to be deeply local. We cannot work toward a green, inclusive global economy without putting people – workers, families, communities – at its core. To do this well, we need solutions to be locally owned, contextually relevant and people-first.
To better understand this, the Laudes Foundation, along with the Wallace Global Fund and Ford Foundation, partnered with Climate Horizons in 2024 to map 632 local initiatives working to accelerate just transitions. There is simply no one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, as that project outlines, approaches need to be context-specific and culturally relevant.
Inclusion, agency and accountability
To this end, solutions need to enable three things: inclusion, particularly of marginalized communities in decision-making; agency of impacted communities to influence decision-making; and accountability of all actors for ensuring people are not left behind.

This is where business and industry can play a powerful role. Over the past five years, the Laudes Foundation has supported over 300 partners working to accelerate climate action in several industries – from fashion to food, built environment to finance. And through these partnerships, what it takes to accelerate just transitions within discrete geographic boundaries has become clear: communities, cities and countries.
Communities: Aligning incentives for just transition
How can we get workers, business, civil society and government to work together for a just transition, particularly in local communities heavily dependent on coal?
This is a question that social enterprise Swaniti Initiative sought to answer when setting up the Green Consortium. First established in Jharkhand, a state in Eastern India that is also a major source of climate migrants, the consortium brought together local stakeholders to reskill coal workers into green jobs. Since 2023, over 8,000 at-risk coal workers have been reskilled in e-waste recycling, and the Green Consortium methodology is now being replicated in other coal-producing states in India: Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
What is unique about this methodology is its focus on opportunity and innovation. The platform is designed to help government, industry and civil society leaders learn from each other and co-develop new solutions for green economic growth. And the diversity of the actors often spurs creative ideas. For example, solar companies supporting smallholder farmers or policy-makers creating opportunities for wind energy. Swaniti has been able to do this without asking for new funding from government. Rather, they tap underutilized government funds from existing schemes and redirect them toward reskilling and other green economy opportunities.
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Cities: Leveraging the power of mayors
Like communities, cities are also powerful places for inclusive climate action. They hold more than half of the world’s population and consume 78% of the world’s energy. Cities are not just hotspots for climate impacts, but also offer opportunities for transformation, adaptation and resilience. And they do so by tailoring solutions to their distinct, local contexts. C40 Cities has been supporting enterprising mayors globally on how this can be done.
In 2023, C40 Cities developed a toolkit for city leaders that outlines the seven pillars of a city-based just transition. From bold city leadership to inclusive stakeholder engagement, this toolkit offers pragmatic ways for mayors to accelerate urban just transitions.
For example, it highlights a mechanism used by the government in New Delhi, a city of over 33 million people, to be able to incorporate the diverse needs of its population into policy-making. Now called the Dialogue and Development Commission, this platform helped put in place a fairer approach to how New Delhi reduced its dependence on fossil fuels. Informed by the dialogue with those most impacted, the city was able to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and shut down diesel generators without increasing electricity prices.
Countries: Inspiring national ambition
Like cities, countries also play a critical role in setting their ambition on just transitions and mobilizing the resources to make it happen. This is clear in the Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, which are the national climate action plans by each of the 120+ countries committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement. Yet, such plans often do not sufficiently incorporate the needs and opportunities of a country’s many local contexts, particularly for workers and marginalized communities.
This is where the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 200 million workers across 167 countries, is bridging the gap between local realities and national policies. The ITUC’s Just Transition Centre has been supporting unions and local stakeholders to ensure that national plans are informed by the lived experiences of workers and marginalized groups.
By amplifying localized knowledge, the centre enables national policy-makers to craft practical, inclusive strategies that resonate with communities on the ground. In 2024, the Just Transition Centre was awarded the prestigious WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award for how it has been able to translate the concepts of just transition into practical action by governments. Core to this is making sure the voice of workers is heard.
“Tackling the climate crisis is a question of political will; unions can help to push governments to reacquire that.”
—Giulia Laganà, Co-Director, ITUC Just Transition Centre
”Localized or locally informed solutions are vital to achieving just transitions in the industries driving our global economy. It’s also important to recognize that their effectiveness is often shaped by global factors beyond local or even national control: trade policies, geopolitical shifts and the global financial architecture, to name a few.
The approaches shared here are therefore meant to inspire others to think about what is possible, but are in no way sufficient in themselves. For that, we need all actors – business, investors, government, philanthropy – to step up, invest in new business models, support enabling policies, and unlock the trillions needed to accelerate transitions that have inclusion, agency and accountability at their core.
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Roberto Bocca
February 7, 2025