Concepts
Just Transition
Policy Concept
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Just transition, in the IPCC's own definition, names a set of principles, processes and practices that aim to ensure that no people, workers, places, sectors, countries or regions are left behind in the transition from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy. Its origin is credited, with some hedging even among historians of the term, to the American labor movement: it is widely believed that Tony Mazzocchi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, who had proposed a Superfund for Workers to support displaced workers, was the first to use the phrase, years before the United Nations and the Paris Agreement adopted it as a framing for climate policy.
Facts
Concept Domain Formulated YearMarks OCAW union leader Tony Mazzocchi's Superfund for Workers proposal, published in his own words in 1993, the specific dated proposal historians credit as the concrete origin of the phrase. Mazzocchi's advocacy for the underlying idea traces back into the 1980s through his OCAW organizing, and some general accounts date the TERM only to the 1980s without a specific year; 1993 is the earliest specific, directly quotable date found. Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationJust transition, IPCC definition and originQuote, Just transition, IPCC definition and origin
A set of principles, processes and practices that aim to ensure that no people, workers, places, sectors, countries or regions are left behind in the transition from a high-carbon to a low carbon economy.
2. Dollars & Sense: A Superfund for Workers
Dollars & SenseArticle bodyQuote, Article body
As Mazzocchi put it in 1993, 'There is a Superfund for dirt. There ought to be one for workers.'
Open Questions (1 open question)
When, and by whom, was the term "just transition" first used?
The concept's own reference history hedges its origin: it is widely believed, not established, that Tony Mazzocchi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union coined the phrase in the American labor movement, sometime before the United Nations and the Paris Agreement adopted the framing decades later for climate policy. No precise year or first-use document is cited for the labor-movement origin, only a general attribution.
What would resolve this A labor history source, an OCAW archive, a biography of Mazzocchi, or a peer-reviewed history of the just transition concept naming the specific speech, pamphlet or year the phrase first appears, rather than the general "widely believed" attribution this entry currently carries.
Labor historyWikipedia
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