Last week, I spent some time in dialogue with some brilliant minds on the potential framework and pathways for a gender just energy transition in India. But before I share a few of my reflections and perspectives on this issue, it is pertinent to define some of these concepts which are Western jargons which possibly make little or no sense to communities impacted by the climate crisis or its proposed mitigation in our contexts.
Energy Transition– “The energy transition is a continuing process requiring long-term energy strategies and planning, with a country-tailored focus on applying appropriated energy technologies to reach net-zero emissions.”- UNDP
Just Transition– “Greening the economy in a way that is fair and inclusive of everyone
concerned, including women, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind.”- ILO
Gender Just Transition– “The just transition to low-carbon, sustainable economies presents opportunities for addressing gender inequalities in the labour market through the creation of decent work in by men. To be truly equitable, inclusive and fair, a just transition must take a human rights-based, intersectional approach with social protection and care at the centre.”- UN Women
The energy transition is considered an important pillar of climate mitigation not only in India but globally and the Indian Government has the intention and policy impetus to make this happen whether it is the promotion of renewable energy, electric vehicles or the exploration of green hydrogen. There are references in the policy framework that this transition should also be just with a focus on communities whose livelihoods will be impacted by India’s gradual move away from coal. And there is this promise on the horizon of new skills and technology that will embed every Indian in this green economy. While this possibly looks like a full proof plan with the backing of big organisations, private companies and some members of academia, this techno optimism (a word I am borrowing from Japanese scholar Kohie Saito’s book Slow down) is worrying and needs to be analysed and understood.
I have found that a feminist and decolonial lens is quite useful in doing that!
The concept of a just transition has been around since the 1980s and was used by the movement of US trade unions to protect workers that have been effected by water and air pollution. [1] The work by the labour unions on just transition has contributed significantly to the international climate debates and in the early 2000s there was an effort to incorporate it into the UN negotiations. It was incorporated into the historic Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015. It is difficult to have one definition of just transition as we would have to first define the kind of justice and then the type and scope of the transition. So it makes absolute sense that different groups have approached the concept of just transition with a unique lens based on their perspectives and focus. [2]
It dawned on me through engagement with organisations on this topic that while just transition should be a lens adopted to different transitions with intersectionality at its core. It is stuck in a hegemony with a colonial mindset limiting the scope of what this transition could be for India. An example of this: the dominant discourse on just transition is limited to the move away for coal in India and protecting the rights of livelihood of workers associated with the coal production sector. While this should be one of the many approaches, its dominance is restricting as there will be several transitions that take place across the regional diversity in India as we shift our energy systems to address global warming.
Energy Transition has a larger economic impact and it would not seem logical to have a single sector focus. Let’s refer to coal, to explore this point, as it powers several other industries and many small and medium industries support the coal economy, so there is a dependency which cannot be ignored while planning the just transition for this sector. There are also clean energy projects like renewable energy both large and decentralised and the shift away from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles, that should be approached from a just transition lens. Infact I would add that the value chains of several sectors that drive this country’s economy whether it is agriculture, healthcare, information technology, textiles will be impacted as we move away from fossil fuels. Another critical sector that is part of this energy transition but never finds mention in any of these conversations is the household, which in every sense is the invisible backbone of our economy and the primary caregivers in these spaces, the unseen women and their labour. The exclusion of the household also reflects the Western and neo colonial adaptation of the just transition approach in India.
The other question I was grappling with is, what we mean by a worker in the just transition discourse. Are we referring to the skilled worker, the able bodied men who are working in and around the mines which includes the tea seller, grocer and the small business owners. The mainstream solutions that have been proposed for just transition to ensure workers are not left without a livelihood is around green skills and green jobs and while this in itself sounds like a mammoth operation, it doesn’t seem to apply to the informal worker who possibly has no access, required literacy or resources for these kind of skilling programmes. And these programmes are definitely not targeting women who pick up odd daily wage work around the mine and primarily contribute to domestic work. So this begs the question: Who are these green skills and jobs designed for, if not the current workforce that drives the coal economy?
If we broaden the scope and think beyond coal across sectors that are currently driven by fossil fuels, we realise that informal workers are the driving force of these sectors and women make up a large part of these value chains even though their contributions are not accounted.
And this really brings me to the question where are the women in these conversations?
If informal women workers are driving much of the economic progress that is reliant on burning fossil fuels through their daily labour and working in extremely hazardous conditions with little or no social protection, where are their voices and participation in this discourse.
While the imagination for just transition has come from the labour movement in the West, it can be reimagined for all workers in the Global South especially those that will be at the forefront of the climate crisis and impacted by its proposed mitigation. Many will be women working in the informal economy and facing intersectional marginalisations.
The current discourse on just transition in India even though emergent, is already excluding many communities due to narrow boundaries that ignore inter-linkages between different parts of the value chain including the household. Since we are at the early stages of these conversations in India, I am left with some insights that I would like to build on and invite others to do the same:
- Just transition is an opportunity to build voices, participation and solidarity across different working class groups especially those in the informal space that will help policy makers arrive at a holistic approach.
- Recognise care work primarily done by women but also other genders as an integral part of the just transition as it is foundational to the economy and a space of energy use and consumption.
- Finally any transition will need vast amount of resources and time as the experience in the transition from biomass to the fossil fuel economy has taught us. Infact many vulnerable communities are still in transition from biomass to fossil fuels in India. Given the pace and finances, how are we going to provide social safety nets and support systems to the most marginalsied in the interim, so they are not left behind.
Neha Saigal works on issues of intersectional feminist climate justice in India.
[1] https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/what-just-transition-and-why-it-important
[2] https://www.cif.org/sites/cif_enc/files/knowledge-documents/justtransition_final.pdf
