Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Just Transition

The scale of current fossil fuel subsidies in the world coupled with the massive financial needs for transition are early indicators of the benefits of approaching FFSR with just transition in mind. [...] At a time of austerity in many regions of the world, the budgetary space required for investments in worker supports, education, health and social programming can place pressure on public budgets and strain the political economy and public support for just transition if the financing is not in place to achieve the desired objectives. [...] In the Netherlands, (then Minister) Joop den Uyl spoke to the need for transition to focus on the benefit to workers and to bring labour and employers to the table together to plan and implement transition. [...] A number of reasons are explored in the report, including alignment of the objectives of FFSR and just transition, and very importantly, the ability of FFSR to unlock revenues for implementing a just transition. [...] The ILO has a long list of decent work indicators that can be drawn from in identifying the types of measurements that would be helpful (ILO, 2013), but it should be noted that the overall set of indicators is likely to be unique to each country based on individual goals, impacts and the makeup of the economy.