Just transition and human rights
By Alice Venn
In 2024, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) invited people and organisations to respond to a call for input to inform a new synthesis report on just transition and human rights. Just transition refers to efforts to ensure that changes made in response to climate change are fair for everyone.
The new synthesis report aims to explore ‘opportunities, best practices, actionable solutions, challenges and barriers relevant to a just transition and the full realization of human rights for all people’.
Sensing Climate project researcher, Dr Alice Venn, responded to this call with a piece that has now been published on the OHCHR website.
In writing the piece, Alice drew on her existing collaborative work on just transition in Bristol, as well as the Sensing Climate project, the Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme, Bristol’s Just Transition Declaration, and the brilliant Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership-enabled Community Leadership Panel on Climate Change and Just Transition and Community Climate Action activities on disability and climate.
The piece highlights the risks of eco-ableism in the rollout of decarbonisation policy. It shares examples of best practice in community engagement and co-production, and calls for five key elements:
Intersectional approaches to inclusive just transition
Community engagement and co-production
Empowerment of disabled people and underrepresented groups as agents of change
Capacity building and resourcing
Compliance with equalities duties and rights
You can download a copy of Alice’s response online as a Word document here.
Find out more about the Call for Inputs and read the full range of responses submitted online.
If you would like a copy of Alice’s response in an alternative format, do get in touch with Alice (alice.venn@bristol.ac.uk) or Sarah (sarah.bell@exeter.ac.uk).