The People’s Transition: Community-led development for Climate Justice

Policy Brief

With a case study focused on rural communities in Ireland

This publication proposes a participative decision-making model, The People’s Transition, that views climate action as an enabler of local development, gives people and communities ownership of the transition to zero carbon societies, and enhances public support for a Just Transition by tackling inequality and raising standards of living through the delivery of climate solutions.

Based on a Capabilities Approach, to ensure that actions for the benefit of the climate are developed on a foundation of equity and to ensure that workers and communities in transition are given the opportunity to provide meaningful participation in order to achieve outcomes that they value and have reason to value.

Significant emphasis is placed on the promotion of trust between communities and decision makers; the importance of community capacity building; and the valuing, and incorporation, of local knowledge and expertise into climate solutions.

This research model aims to inform the development of the Climate Pact, the bottom-up component of the European Green Deal which seeks to give everyone a voice and a space in which to design new climate actions, share information, launch grassroots activities and showcase solutions that others can follow.

To advance climate justice it is necessary to share the benefits and the burdens of the resolution of the climate crisis equitably and fairly. Including people and communities in the design, planning and implementation of the transition to zero carbon societies will not just be the fairest approach, it will also be the fastest.

Read the publication

Policy Brief

Related material: Videos and interviews on Local Wealth Building

Publication launch + panel discussion