New article by Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh (Université Laval) entitled “Just Transition and Social Acceptability: A Canadian Case”, co-written with his colleagues Hubert Cadieux, Catherine Ouellet, Jeanne Desrosiers and Yannick Dufresne, published in the journal Ethics, Policy & Environment.

Abstract

This paper takes place at the intersection of climate policy, public opinion and the ‘just transition’ debate. Its central hypothesis is: the inclusion of fairness measures in the green economy transition – especially by targeting workers in the most affected sectors – will have a positive impact on the social acceptability of climate policy. This paper focuses on two key policies: carbon pricing and a fossil fuel phase-out. A set of survey questions compare social support for these two policies (i) without and (ii) with accompanying fairness provisions, such as green jobs creation and support for workers. This paper uses an exclusive survey (n = 1,500) conducted in Canada in 2022. From the data, we observed that fairness provisions increase the support both for a higher price on carbon and for a decrease in the production of oil and gas, which was especially salient for groups initially less concerned by climate change.