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Graham K, Knittel CR. Assessing the distribution of employment vulnerability to the energy transition using employment carbon footprints. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2314773121. [PMID: 38315859 PMCID: PMC10873616 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2314773121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
As the world moves away from fossil fuels, there is growing recognition of the need for a just transition of those working in carbon-intensive industries and for policy to support this transition. While recent policies such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have begun to incorporate support for energy-intensive regions, little work has thoroughly investigated which communities are most vulnerable to economic disruption in the energy transition and therefore require policy support. This paper analyzes the distribution of employment vulnerability in the U.S. by calculating the average "employment carbon footprint" of close-to every job in the U.S. economy at high geographic and sectoral granularity. The measure considers employment vulnerability across the entire economy and captures both fossil fuel consumption and production effects, with the sectors covered in our analysis accounting for 86% of total U.S. employment and 94% of U.S. carbon emissions outside of the transportation sector. We find that existing efforts to identify at-risk communities both in the literature and the IRA exclude regions of high employment vulnerability, and thereby risk leaving these communities behind in the energy transition. This work underscores the importance of proactive and continuous measures of employment vulnerability, presents policymakers with much-needed data to incorporate such measures into just transition policy and makes the case for place-based policy approaches when considering how best to support communities through the energy transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kailin Graham
- Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Christopher R. Knittel
- Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA02138
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Evans-Agnew R, LeClair J, Sheppard DA. Just-relations and responsibility for planetary health: The global nurse agenda for climate justice. Nurs Inq 2024; 31:e12563. [PMID: 37256546 DOI: 10.1111/nin.12563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
There is an urgent call for nurses to address climate change, especially in advocating for those most under threat to the impacts. Social justice is important to nurses in their relations with individuals and populations, including actions to address climate justice. The purpose of this article is to present a Global Nurse Agenda for Climate Justice to spark dialog, provide direction, and to promote nursing action for just-relations and responsibility for planetary health. Grounding ourselves within the Mi'kmaw concept of Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing), we suggest that climate justice is both call and response, moving nurses from silence to Ksaltultinej (love as action). We review the movement for climate justice in nursing, weaving between our own stories, our relations with Mi'kmaw ways of knowing, and the stories of the movement, with considerations for the (w)holistic perspectives foundational to nursing's metaparadigm of person, environment, and health. We provide a background to the work of the Global Nurse Agenda for Climate Justice steering committee including their role at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, 2021, and share our own stories of action to frame this agenda. We accept our Responsibility for the challenges of climate justice with humility and invite others to join us.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin Evans-Agnew
- School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, Washington, USA
| | - Jessica LeClair
- School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - De-Ann Sheppard
- Faculty of Science, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
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Evans-Agnew RA, Aguilera J. Climate Justice Is Environmental Justice: System Change for Promoting Planetary Health and a Just Transition From Extractive to Regenerative Action. Health Promot Pract 2023; 24:597-602. [PMID: 37408459 DOI: 10.1177/15248399231171950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
Our climate emergency is changing health promotion practice, and we need to increase our efforts. In the 20 years since our journal was published, we have witnessed the pressing challenges incurred by human-caused threats to planetary health. These threats are most profound in communities that are already unjustly under threat from structural factors such as poverty, toxic exposures, and inequitable allocation of resources for promoting their health. Those least responsible for contributing to this emergency, including all living environments in harm's way, will unjustly experience the greatest burdens. This commentary calls for health promotion practice to engage in system change and action in the struggle for climate justice by adopting a planetary health perspective. There must be a just transition from extractive to regenerative economies and actions. We describe our own journey as researchers and health practitioners toward this call for action. We propose a series of system change actions in social, environmental, political, health systems, and health profession education within the scope and responsibility of health promotion practice.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Juan Aguilera
- University of Texas Health Science Center, El Paso, TX, USA
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Abstract
Sustainability, properly understood, is an existential moral ideal. The United Nations, however, defines it in terms of 17 indivisible sustainable development goals. This definition changes the core idea of the concept. It turns sustainability from a moral ideal into a set of economy-based political aspirations. The European Union's bioeconomy strategy demonstrates the shift aptly and reveals its main problem. When economy is prioritized, social and ecological concerns become secondary. This has been the United Nations line since the Brundtland Commission's report, Our Common Future in 1987. Considerations of justice illustrate the inadequacy of the approach. Equality and justice require that all those affected by decisions are heard in making them. Under the current operationalization, decisions related to the natural environment and climate change are currently being made without hearing voices that advocate deeper social and ecological equality. After an explication of the problem and the state of the art as outlined above, a new notion of justainability is introduced and it is argued that assuming it would be a step in the right direction in taking also noneconomic values properly into account in international decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuija Takala
- Department of Management Studies, Aalto University School of Business,Espoo, Finland
| | - Matti Häyry
- Department of Management Studies, Aalto University School of Business,Espoo, Finland
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Narayan S. Just Transition for Healthy People on a Healthy Planet. New Solut 2023; 33:72-82. [PMID: 37093807 DOI: 10.1177/10482911231167566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
The definition of Just Transition in recent years has been shaped by the political and ideological leanings of multiple stakeholders. Labor movements look at a Just Transition that secures workers' rights and jobs; environmental justice groups include whole communities impacted by fossil fuel in their description; multilateral institutions, investors, and transnational corporations see it through lenses of economics, financial support, and investment. However, a perspective on health is missing in all these approaches. The COVID-19 pandemic has established the importance of health-based planning, making evident the co-dependence of ecological health and human well-being. The debilitating post-pandemic economic crisis has reiterated the interlinkage between economics, public health, and the environment. This document posits that health is the overlapping but missing link between the different movements' dream for Just Transition into an equitable world, and to heal people and the planet damaged by fossil fuels. We need Just Transition that has holistic health systems and accessible healthcare services at its core.
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Martin N, Madrid-López C, Villalba-Méndez G, Talens-Peiró L. New Techniques for Assessing Critical Raw Material Aspects in Energy and Other Technologies. Environ Sci Technol 2022; 56:17236-17245. [PMID: 36420752 PMCID: PMC9730842 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c05308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Revised: 11/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Transitioning to more sustainable energy technologies is a vital step in the move toward reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. However, several physical constraints could hinder the implementation of these technologies, and many of the raw materials required to produce new infrastructure are scarce, nonrenewable, and nonsubstitutable. Various factors relating to material extraction and processing activities may also affect the security and sociopolitical aspects of future supply lines. Here, we introduce methods for quantifying three key indicators relating to raw material supplies for specific production processes: (1) overall supply risk, (2) environmental impacts from sourcing raw materials, and (3) environmental justice threats at sourcing locations. The use of the proposed methods is demonstrated via an exploratory case study examining projected electricity production scenarios within the European Union. Results suggest that renewable sources of electricity─particularly wind, solar, and geothermal technologies─are more likely to exacerbate supply risks and environmental issues than other technologies. Furthermore, projected expansions of wind and solar technologies mean that all three indicators appear likely to rise significantly systemwide by 2050. Ultimately, the methods represent a much-needed first attempt at providing practitioners with simple and robust approaches for integrating factors relating specifically to raw material supply into energy modeling and other applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nick Martin
- Sostenipra
Research Group, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology
(ICTA-UAB), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Catalunya08193, Spain
| | - Cristina Madrid-López
- Sostenipra
Research Group, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology
(ICTA-UAB), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Catalunya08193, Spain
| | - Gara Villalba-Méndez
- Sostenipra
Research Group, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology
(ICTA-UAB), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Catalunya08193, Spain
- Department
of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Catalunya08193, Spain
| | - Laura Talens-Peiró
- Sostenipra
Research Group, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology
(ICTA-UAB), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Catalunya08193, Spain
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Abstract
As the world's largest coal producer and consumer, China's transition from coal to cleaner energy sources is critical for achieving global decarbonization. Increasing regulations on air pollution and carbon emissions and decreasing costs of renewables drive China's transition away from coal; however, this transition also has implications for employment and social justice. Here, we assess China's current coal-transition policies, their barriers, and the potential for an accelerated transition, as well as the associated environmental, human health, and employment and social justice issues that may arise from the transition. We estimate that the most aggressive coal-transition pathway could reduce annual premature death related to coal combustion by 224,000 and reduce annual water consumption by 4.3 billion m3 in 2050 compared with business-as-usual. We highlight knowledge gaps and conclude with policy recommendations for an integrated approach to facilitate a rapid and just transition away from coal in China.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang He
- Department of Technology and Society, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
- Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Jiang Lin
- Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Department of Agricultural and Resources Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Ying Zhang
- Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing 100028, China
| | - Wenhua Zhang
- Department of Technology and Society, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
- School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
| | - Guilherme Larangeira
- Department of Technology and Society, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Chao Zhang
- School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
| | - Wei Peng
- School of International Affairs and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA
| | - Manzhi Liu
- School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
| | - Fuqiang Yang
- Natural Resources Defense Council China Program, Beijing 100026, China
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