Delivering A Just Transition

Delivering a Just Transition is not possible without proactive policies and investment. We need to anticipate change and create good quality jobs in existing and new industries to ensure long term resilience. This is where energy efficiency is a key pillar in a fair transition.

IndustriAll Europe has long defended the need for strategic autonomy and the need for a proactive industrial policy to ensure resilient manufacturing supply chains, the maintenance of good industrial jobs in sustainable and decarbonised industrial production.

With historically high energy prices since the pandemic, the ramp up of low carbon electricity production, deep reform of price-setting rules and greater efficiency are key for European resilience. To deliver good jobs, energy efficiency through renovation and industrial innovation must ensure that collective bargaining, worker participation and Just Transition principles are put into action.

The role of renovation and industrial applications

Renovation of buildings offers a potential triple win for jobs, reduced bills and the environment. It has been proved to deliver but demands an investment and policy drive.

Between 2000 and 2022, the EU saw the creation of over 2 million full-time equivalent jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector, according to Eurostat. These sectors have outstripped general employment trends. There are many direct energy efficiency job potentials in the manufacturing and installation of energy saving technologies (e.g. heat pumps) and many jobs are linked already today with the manufacturing of insulation and construction materials and the construction sector as such. By renovating the building sector, there is a huge potential to further reduce our energy consumption, but also to combat energy poverty that affects many people around the globe.

Across Europe, 18 direct jobs are created for every 1M € invested in Energy-Efficient Renovations, and 1 € invested in the EU construction sector generates 2.2€ in other sectors – making EE Renovations an optimum public investment. Local jobs in the construction trades and basic materials.
On top of that in the sectors that industriAll Europe represents the major potential certainly is the job safeguarding potential in industry (through energy savings, decarbonisation and increased competitiveness).

Improving energy efficiency in industry

This has been, and is one of the key pathways of decarbonising energy intensive industrial sectors. Especially, in a context where energy prices are high and volatile this remains the lowest hanging fruit to decarbonise energy intensive-industries and maintain and create good industrial jobs.
We need to maintain a leadership position in innovation and technological development and manufacturing of technologies. Technology advancements have been largely thanks to a highly qualified workforce and good working conditions. We need to safeguard this. We need to invest in innovation and in our workforce.

IndustriAll Europe calls for a proactive industrial policy that includes:

  •  coherent industrial strategy and sector pathways to decarbonisation and competitive sustainability
  • public and private investments,
  • a fiscal framework that supports public investments tied to strong social conditionalities,
  • a public procurement framework tied to social dialogue and collective bargaining
  • the creation of lead markets to spur demand,
  • adequate investments in innovation
  • investments in people and good quality jobs, including skills strategies that are developed with social partner involvement

Investments to safeguard jobs

Workers are embracing the call for investments in technologies that decarbonise industries and safeguard good industrial jobs. But some companies clearly put shareholder profits before reinvestments in technologies that can deliver. We are currently seeing a massive wave of redundancies in the steel sector and also other sectors

Against this backdrop, industriAll Europe calls for:

  • social conditionalities tied to public support promoting not only profits but a greater distribution of the profits with society
  • the enablement of a Just Transition through a legislative framework for the anticipation and management of change

“To do better, we must put in place Just Transition frameworks in every country that supports people, workers and economies and that provides for the space to effectively involve workers in shaping the transition and ensure good quality jobs and living conditions everywhere” stressed Judith Kirton-Darling