Bhavya GuptaandRamkishen S. Rajan

Opinion | Climate crisis: how to tackle the public backlash against the costs of a green transition

Workers, businesses and communities facing dislocation are fuelling a backlash against the energy transition, particularly in Europe

If climate action is to stay on track, governments must minimise the economic disruption and shepherd a just transition

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An Oxfam protester in a Rishi Sunak mask outside parliament in London on September 19, on the eve of the UN Climate Ambition Summit, calling for oil and gas giants to pay more tax to raise critical funds to help communities devastated by climate change. Photo: AP

Bhavya GuptaandRamkishen S. Rajan

Published: 5:30am, 12 Oct 2023Updated: 5:58am, 12 Oct 2023

In July, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warned that the “era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived”. Last month, on a visit to Hanoi, US President Joe Biden proclaimed that global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees in the coming decades is “the only existential threat humanity faces [that is] even more frightening than a nuclear war”.

Although indulging in such climate “doomerism” can fuel climate anxiety, especially among young people, jarring imagery is sometimes needed to inject a sense of urgency into climate action.

The good news is that the transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 has become a global policy priority, as governments embarked, albeit belatedly, on ambitious policies to increase renewable energy use.

The not-so-good news is that even though governments realise the significance of net zero emissions, the process of getting there has become more convoluted and politicised. The higher-for-longer interest rate policy globally needed to rebottle the inflation genie has negatively affected the green transition, which requires massive private capital investment.

Added to this is a wave of backsliding on green initiatives, which have widened fault lines around the world, most notably in Europe, the long-touted leader in climate consciousness and a front runner in rolling out climate policies. There are signs that the politics of climate change is slowing down Europe’s decarbonisation drive.

Across the Atlantic, the historic US autoworkers’ strike highlighted the tensions between committing to a green transition and preserving jobs in sectors most likely to be affected by it. Last year, the International Monetary Fund estimated that around 1 per cent of the labour force in advanced economies and 2.5 per cent in emerging economies will undergo a structural transformation in the net zero transition.

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