A 7-Step guide to help companies deliver a just transition
Net Zero is ultimately about people. While public support for climate action remains strong, that support must be actively earned and maintained, especially among the communities most affected by the transition. As climate action increasingly competes with other political and economic priorities, the long-term success and legitimacy of corporate climate plans will depend on how well they integrate justice, equity and inclusion – this is what is meant by the phrase ‘just transition’. Yet, voluntary guidance and standards offered to businesses to help guide climate transition planning include limited actionable guidance on how to integrate ‘just transition’ elements (Becker et al., 2024).
In response to this limited guidance in the net zero governance landscape, Oxford Net Zero Research Fellows Dr. Matilda Becker, Alexis McGivern and Kaya Axelsson assembled a Youth Advisory Board, made up of twelve brilliant and talented young professionals from eleven different countries. Together, they assessed existing guidance offered to corporates, and reflected on their own lived experience to co-create these guiding principles. Their vision aims to go beyond simply avoiding corporate harm, and instead to reshape corporate climate action in ways that heal historical injustices and build regenerative relationships between businesses, communities, workers and nature.
This Enterprise Brief outlines a clear, seven-step roadmap to help companies put the just transition at the heart of their net zero strategies. The just transition is both a process and an outcome. This guide focuses on the process of a just transition, and the ways to identify and integrate affected communities into transition planning.
Why pursue a just transition?
A just transition is both a strategic business imperative and an ethical commitment to climate action beyond the ‘carbon tunnel vision’. By pursuing a just transition, companies can ensure that their climate action supports, rather than sidelines, the people and communities most affected by our climate transition. This includes workers, supply chain communities, SMEs, vulnerable groups and more. The risks of failing to integrate justice and equity into climate transition plans are clear: rising social resistance, growing reputational harm, lost business opportunities, and legal exposure. On the other hand, the opportunities of a just transition are just as compelling: building trust and support with supply chain communities through shared prosperity, preparing your workforce for change by driving innovation and resilience, aligning with investor expectations and disclosure requirements, and demonstrating credibility and leadership in climate action.
Our Guide
Our Enterprise Brief walks through a seven-step process to develop and implement a just transition plan, grounded in global best practices and the lived experience of young climate professionals from eleven countries.
The steps include:
- Deliver science-based action by aligning with a 1.5C trajectory
- Understand what a just transition means for your organisation, and embed it into organisational strategy
- Publicly commit to the just transition and align governance structure
- Identify affected stakeholders within and beyond your operations
- Engaged with those groups to co-create solutions
- Act beyond the act value to shape system-wide progress
- Monitor, evaluate and report on progress to stay accountable and transparent
Join the conversation
We are excited to share the insights from our Youth Advisory Board during London Climate Action Week at Reset Connect, where we will co-host a panel with the Race to Zero and the SBTi to explore how businesses can centre justice in their climate transition strategies. The event will be followed by networking drinks - we hope to see you there!
Register for our joint event on Net Zero at the London Climate Action Week with Reset Connect.
