Global Perspectives on Labour, Climate Policy and Just Transition
- Date: Thursday 5 June 2025, 12:00 – 19:00
- Location: Representation of the State of Lower Saxony, Rue Montoyer 61, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
- Type: Online, Ideas in Practice, Conferences, Alumni
- Cost: Free
Join our hybrid conference presenting research findings from unions' Just Transition policies and initiatives across 14 countries worldwide from a multi-year research project.
Register your place on the Hans Böckler Foundation’s website
Led by Leeds University Business School’s Professor Vera Trappmann, this hybrid conference will present research into unions' Just Transition policies and initiatives in 14 countries worldwide from a multi-year research project funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation, and offers a space for discussing policy learnings from international perspectives.
Just Transition is contested. Efforts at decarbonisation have widely varying effects on workers across countries, sectors and locations, from offering new opportunities and green jobs to the social risks of unbalanced phaseouts in high-emitting sectors. Workers and trade unions respond to the challenges of transition in a range of ways, including focusing on protecting core industry jobs in the Global North to resisting the destruction of communities and habitats by extractive projects in the Global South. These different experiences have brought about equally different understandings of Just Transition, visions for a post-carbon future, and strategies and instruments for achieving them.
The research you will hear presented is the result of a combined project between 20 researchers from 12 research institutions, led by Leeds University Business School.
Global Perspectives on Labour, Climate Policy and Just Transition welcomes delegates from from European trade unions and union confederations, affected trade unions, policymakers, think-tank representatives and academics with related research.
This conference is taking place in person and online, and will be hosted at the Representation of the State of Lower Saxony, Rue Montoyer 61, Brussels. Please note that you must select your option for attendance on the ticketing page.
Conference programme:
|
12:00 CET |
Arrival and buffet lunch |
|
13:00 |
Welcome and introductions Christina Schildmann, Hans Boeckler Foundation Béla Galgóczi, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) Vera Trappmann, Leeds University Business School Dennis Eversberg, University of Frankfurt |
|
13:15 |
Session 1: Just Transitions for workers Showcasing and discussing findings from country cases in which unions exhibit some degree of agency and effective channels on institutionalised power, to initiate conversation around workers' needs in the process of post-carbon change.
Discussant: Frederik Moch, Head of the Structural, Industry and Service Policy Department at the German Trade Union Confederarion (DGB) |
|
14:30 |
Refreshment break |
| 14:45 |
Session 2: (Just) Transitions for industries Findings from countries where Just Transition is either not a commonly used concept or where policies to transition whole industrial sectors are pursued by government with regard primarily to the development of the national economy, rather than to the concerns of the workers.
Discussant: Béla Galgóczi, Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute |
|
16:00 |
Refreshment break |
| 16:30 |
Session 3: Just Transitions for communities Evidencing country cases where unions derive agency, influence and political energy from their communities, and strive to shape ongoing socio-economic change to benefit these communities and their quality of life.
Discussant: Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Director of the Priority Action Programme |
| 18:05 |
Screening of the “Voices from the Green Transition” documentary Produced alongside the research project, the film documents voices of workers reflecting on their on-the-ground experiences in the midst of ongoing transitions in several of our case study countries. |
| 18:35 |
Finger buffet and networking |
| 19:00 CET |
Conference close |
If you have any questions about this conference, please contact Grace Carter at Leeds University Business School.