Focus Area

As countries move towards a green economy to avoid climate collapse and other environmental dead ends, it has become clear that the economic and social implications of a green transition – whether positive or negative - will be drastic: For example, when industries transform at the scale and speed required to stay within planetary boundaries, jobs will change or (dis)appear, new health challenges and opportunities will arise, and education systems will need to adapt.   

UNDP has been supporting countries’ socio-economic impact assessment of their green transition efforts. These show that negative green transition impacts are often distributed unevenly (e.g. affecting unskilled labour and women) and that decarbonizing strategies also come with new risks (e.g. increased demand for critical minerals or biofuels). They also illustrate that if conflicting economic, environmental, and social needs are not managed well, a green transition in any given country has the potential to jeopardize achievements on social justice and human rights and to question a society’s entire social contract.  

Interestingly, however, while the socio-economic and environmental opportunities and challenges (the ‘what’) of a green transition are being investigated, there is much less knowledge and guidance on how to go about them (the ‘how’). In other words, the governance needed to turn a green into a fair transition (or to even establish what ‘fair’ or ‘just’ means to people) is much less discussed and understood.  

The Centre therefore focuses on governance as a neglected aspect of fair green transitions. By doing so, it contributes all of UNDP’ Signature Solutions, from Energy to Governance. It also supports the Strategic Plan’s three directions of change: structural transformation, leaving no-one behind and building resilience.