We are at a Code Red for Humanity to confront the climate emergency. Meeting the climate challenge means major shifts in our economies and societies bringing significant impacts on people, families and communities that touch the core of their well-being. Our 1.5°C future will require a rapid move from polluting to renewable energy, involving local governments, unions and the private sector to support affected communities and people by generating green jobs, as well as a system-wide transformation - from investment and lending, to food supply chains and transport. 

In this shift we must support the advancement of a strong social contract which gives substance to the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and ensures human rights and larger freedoms for all, and spurs the transformation of economies and societies to halt climate change and environmental destruction.

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement which highlighted “the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs” for the first time, the global community has become increasingly more action-oriented with States recognizing the need to ensure just transitions by leveraging finance for a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emission and climate-resilient development in the Glasgow Climate Pact. The United Nations Secretary-General has called on countries to adopt the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) “Guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all” as a minimum standard, and work to ensure a just transition where opportunities outweigh jobs lost. The need for leadership from the private sector becomes crucial for a just transition to  a 1.5°C future. 

Think Lab on Just Transition

To enable the private sector to support the UN Secretary-General’s vision, the United Nations Global Compact is hosting the Think Lab on Just Transition, launched at COP26 with the ILO and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 

The Think Lab’s work is anchored in the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, the 2030 Agenda and in the ILO’s Just Transition Guidelines. It builds on and is guided by existing efforts such as the ILO’s Just Transition Innovation Hub and the ITUC’s Just Transition Centre. The Think Lab aims to unravel the rationale of what it means for a company’s business strategy to support and engage in a just transition. Its objectives include: 

1. Shape and define business and thought leadership on critical areas linked to just transition. 
2. Address key business challenges and identify policy advocacy opportunities as well as good business practice; 
3. Scale-up learnings and deliverables and incubate time-bound future programmes to help increase uptake of just transition across sectors and regions.

The Think Lab on Just Transition is implemented in collaboration with our partners:

In collaboration with:

UN Global Compact CFO Coalition for the SDGs

UN Global Compact Just Transition Maritime Task Force

The following companies are participants in the Think Lab on Just Transition as of June 2022: