By Hakan Karaosman and Donna Marshall in re/make · April 3, 2024

3 April 2024 - The rate of climate change is now ‘gobsmackingly bananas’. 2023 became the hottest year on record, with September being 1.8oC warmer than pre-industrial levels. Man-made climate change is the result of high levels of carbon emissions released by burning fossil fuels and other human activities. Despite pledges and commitments, governments, industries and companies fail to take
decisive climate action to limit global warming to 1.5oC.

Decarbonization, avoiding and reducing carbon emissions by phasing-out fossil fuels, is vital, but it should not be done in isolation. Environmental actions result in intergenerational societal consequences and paradoxical tensions exist between environmental and social dimensions that must be taken into account. While we need to take urgent steps to phase out fossil fuels and decarbonize, we need to ensure this happens in a fair, inclusive and equitable way, or we could be creating more issues into the future.

Garment workers are under constant pressure due to operational and quality targets

Just transition emerges as a concept to ensure that climate actions also protect communities, their rights and wellbeing. Just transition ensures climate action and social equity happen holistically in order to prevent community deprivation, poverty and depopulation. Community inclusion and representation are needed to ensure successful just transitions, as communities bring traditional know-how, local knowledge and context-based innovations to solve climate issues rather than contributing to them. Hence, the people side of decarbonization, which has previously been pretty much ignored, must get proper attention to better understand how to decarbonize in a fair, just and inclusive way…

Read the full article on re/make here.