Just energy transitions to low carbon economies: A review of the concept and its effects on labour and income

The global environmental and social crisis has motivated the renaissance of just transitions, this time centred around the effects on labour and income distribution of the shift to a sustainable energy mix. This renewed conception has gone beyond its origins in the US unions in the 1970s to become a key element in many discourses worldwide, with different nuances. Over the last few years, it has found a place in the SDGs and gathered strong support from the ILO. As political frameworks and literature multiply, this work presents a systematic review of the concept, its evolution and the methodologies devoted to studying it. We make three major points. First, the empirical state-of-the-art has blurred the lines of the methodological classifications found in previous studies: CGE and IAMs are two of the most popular methods, with a growing interest in hybrid approaches and system dynamics. Additionally, while most studies focus on the national level, the regional level is gaining momentum to illustrate the asymmetric effects of the transition. Second, a certain consensus has been detected to point out a positive, yet relatively small, impact of the transition on net employment and a negative effect on income distribution. Third, there is a scarcity of research about income dynamics, while studies on labour are blind to the effects of the transition on the quality of jobs, the evolution of working hours and gender. These gaps have inspired the elaboration of a research agenda that is presented at the end of the work.