Just Transition Alliance: COP26 Media Report
Workers & Communities for Just Transition Delegation
From Nov. 3-12, 2021, the Just Transition Alliance (JTA) and Central Florida Jobs with Justice (CFJWJ) led a delegation of frontline workers and community organizers to participate inside and outside what we called the 26th Conference of the Profiteers (COP26) to force world leaders to abandon corporate schemes such as “net zero emissions,” and to embrace just transition strategies that embody the priorities of workers and communities hit hardest by climate change.
Our delegation included frontline workers and fence-line community members from Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the Black Workers Just Transition Initiative, the Green Workers Alliance and local and international unions such as 1199 Service Employees International Union-UHWE, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, UNITE HERE 737 and United Steelworkers 675. We joined the larger organization It Takes Roots along with Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Climate Justice Alliance and Indigenous Environmental Network.
Contents
In the Media
"While elites fixate on technological fixes such as 'net zero' emissions at COP26, communities of color fear it will disproportionately impact them and instead demand a just phasing out of oil and gas—and a seat at the table.
Featuring Alejandria Lyons, the Environmental Justice Organizer with the South West Organizing Project; José Bravo, Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance; Jonathan Alingu, Co-Director of Central Florida Jobs with Justice; Ananda Lee Tan, Strategy Advisor to the Just Transition Alliance."
Yes! Magazine (via YouTube)
Public News Service
People of color want "real" change
By Roz Brown
November 23, 2021
News Release (via PR Newswire)
Workers and frontline communities: "UN climate conference steers away from climate justice, caving to fossil fuel corporations"
By It Takes Roots and the Solutions Project
November 16, 2021
Visibility Pick-Up : 276 Matches / More than 197k impressions
Engagements: 69 click-throughs
The Canary (UK)
Now that COP26 is over, it's time to listen to real climate solutions
By Peadar O'Cearnaigh
November 15, 2021
Yes! Magazine
At COP26, Indigenous, Black, and Brown Activists Offer Radical Solutions for Climate Change
By Sonali Kohaltkar
November 15, 2021
Facing South
VOICES: Frontline workers and communities demand real solutions at COP26
By Anne Asman, Jonathan Alingu
October 28, 2021
Los Angeles Times
OP-ED: If our oil jobs are ending, we need safety nets and good replacement work
By Norman Rogers
October 23, 2021
Panels & Media Briefings
Photography: MacKenzie Marcelin
Nov. 5 Media Briefing
José Bravo
Put simply, #NetZero pledges don't work and "in our communities where there has been cap and trade, contamination has gotten worse." José Bravo, Just Transition Alliance. Edited by: Mapache, Indigenous Environmental Network. Credit: It Takes Roots
Jonathan Alingu
Why is it important for communities on the frontlines, Black communities and workers lead a Just Transition? Jonathan Alingu, Co-Director, Central Florida Jobs with Justice. Edited by: Mapache, Indigenous Environmental Network. Credit: It Takes Roots
Monday, Nov. 8 Just Transition Panels
Just Transition Strategies vs. Neoliberal Climate Schemes
Since its inception, the term “Just Transition” has embodied the democratic self-determination of workers and communities. In contrast, neoliberal climate policy is built around the needs of corporations, often with the polluting companies causing this global crisis. Leaders of union locals and climate allies examined how just transition strategies developed by workers and communities must be core to plans for a global Green New Deal.
Panelists: (L) José Bravo, executive director, Just Transition Alliance; Lisa Hamilton, consultant, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Norman Rogers, second vice president, United Steelworkers Local 675; and Matthew Crighton Secretary, Just Transition Partnership.
Credit: Lili Sorum.
Towards A Just Transition: Frontline Knowledge and Visions for Change
Frontline leaders from around the world joined in this discussion on how communities and workers who are first and most impacted by storms, floods, fires and droughts–as well as those historically harmed by the colonial extractive economy driving climate change–have been cultivating radical, visionary and transformative pathways of change.
Panelists: (Mic) Ananda Lee Tan, Just Transition Alliance. (L) Edgar Franks, Familias Unidias por la Justicia; Javiera Paz Lecourt Palacios, Directora Ejecutiva, ONG CEUS CHILE, Estudiante Ingeniería Civil Mención Recursos Hídricos y Medio Ambiente; Jesus Vázquez, Organización Boricua; and Marissa Reyes Diaz, Organización Boricua.
Credit: Jonathan Alingu
Nov. 9 Protest Against False Climate Solutions
Edgar Franks of Familias Unidas por la Justicia took part in a protest inside the hallways of COP26, denouncing false solutions such as #CarbonMarkets and neoliberal constructs such as Net Zero emissions, which equate carbon emission offsets and technology investments with real emissions reductions at source.
Familias Unidas is an independent local farm worker labor union in Washington State, founded in 2013 in Skagit County. The only labor union led by over 400 indigenous Mixteco and Triqui farm workers.
Nov. 11 Side Panel
"Race, Labor, and Climate Justice: Emerging Frontline Struggles for a Just Transition."
Facilitator: Adrien Salazar, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance; Darryl Johnson, East Michigan Environmental Action Council; Payton Wilkins and Lisa Hamilton, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; José Bravo, Just Transition Alliance; Sheila Babauta, Micronesia Climate Change Alliance.
Social Media Analytics
Facebook: Nov. 6 - Dec. 3
Post Reach: ^ 298% | Post Engagement: ^ 53%
Post Reach: ^ 298% | Post Engagement: ^ 53%
Twitter: November 2021
Tweets: 57 | Impressions: 32.3K | Profile Visits: 4,845 | New Followers: 108
Tweets: 57 | Impressions: 32.3K | Profile Visits: 4,845 | New Followers: 108
Top Tweet
4,292 Impressions
Top Mention
Reporter Live Tweet
@dharnanoor / Boston Globe
Media Pitch
Instagram: Highlighted Posts
About Just Transition Alliance
The Just Transition Alliance was founded in 1997 as a coalition of environmental justice organizations and labor unions. Together with frontline workers and community members who live along the fence-line of polluting industries, we create healthy workplaces and communities. The Just Transition Alliance is a 501(c)3 organization based in San Diego, California. Learn more at http://www.jtalliance.org.
About Central Florida Jobs with Justice
Central Florida Jobs With Justice is a local coalition of labor unions, community organizations, faith and student groups that convene on strategies to achieve economic justice for workers within the state of Florida. Through research and community organizing, Central Florida Jobs With Justice promotes collective bargaining rights, employment security, and a decent standard for all workers within the state of Florida. Learn more https://cfjwj.org/.