Just Transition and Human Rights - Equal Right’s Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
Patrick Brown - Executive Director, Equal Right, Diana Bashur - UN Liason, Basic Income Earth Network, Sarah Hathiari - Board Member, Equal Right.
Preamble
This submission outlines how a Basic Income (BI) can support a just transition and help realise human rights for all.
Basic Income, an unconditional, individual and periodic cash payment paid to everyone within a given society, has efficiently delivered a wide range of positive outcomes and spillover effects. This includes key development indicators such as poverty, health and nutrition, well-being, economic activity, educational outcomes, social cohesion, political participation, and economic inequality. (1)
Of interest is the growing evidence of BI’s significant impact on conservation and biodiversity outcomes. This presents a unique policy opportunity compared to traditional market-based instruments (2) toward climate-positive externalities: BI can support greener consumption,(3) promote more meaningful and less polluting forms of work, (4) serve as compensation for climate debt or loss & damage, (5) and support climate activism and the ‘power to say no’ to powerful, extractive industries. (6)
Toward an Inclusive Just Transition
Policymakers are broadly aligned on the substantial funding needed to implement reforms and achieve a just transition. However, few policy solutions propose transformative redistribution mechanisms that would efficiently and effectively realise this.
Many, including the IPCC and OHCHR,(7) are critical of the potential of ‘green growth’ to address the climate crisis, arguing that aggregate growth is incompatible with staying within planetary boundaries. The emphasis placed on employment as a sole means for personal income remains a persistent challenge, while the loss of livelihoods from climate change will transcend the selective opportunities from ‘green’ jobs. We must therefore address the increased demand for social security in the context of breaking our reliance on extractive growth for personal incomes.
BI allows us to conceptualise a genuinely inclusive just transition in which everyone shares equally, providing basic economic security. Because it is universal, BI benefits everyone, particularly those who have contributed least to the climate crisis and have the most to lose as a result. Because it is distributed individually rather than to households, it reaches everyone directly in a way that other policy solutions and trickle-down economic principles do not. Because it is unconditional, it starts from a fundamental principle of unequivocally recognising rights, ensuring that everyone can meet their basic needs as they define them. BI is therefore a simple tool to operationalise how to leave no one behind and achieve an inclusive just transition.
How BI Can Support a Just Transition
Ensuring political feasibility for necessary reforms
Political leaders face a dilemma when considering introducing new taxes on carbon use or removing subsidies fossil companies have long benefitted from - that imposing these fiscal policies will incur an inevitable inflationary impact on energy prices. Clear examples of this are the gilet jaunes protests in France in 2018, the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada or the 2019 fuel protests in Ecuador.(8) Traditional policy instruments seem unable to adequately address the trade-off between needed energy reforms and the immediate socio-economic costs of a significant part of the population. Ultimately, politics often trumps environmental considerations in the short term, with proposals watered down or those who do pursue them, like the Irish Green Party, punished at the ballot box. (9)
However, there is another solution. If energy reforms can be designed in tandem with a redistributive mechanism that gives money back directly to consumers, political feasibility for such necessary policies is more likely. Examples of such policies exist in Iran, Austria, and California. Such innovative policy solutions suggest that a direct cash payment is an efficient and effective way to generate understanding and buy-in for energy price reforms.
Supporting displaced fossil fuel workers
Beyond demand-side considerations, policymakers must also consider the destabilisation of people’s livelihoods from the green transition. Workers in fossil fuel industries are more likely to oppose climate change mitigation policies, (10) especially if perceived alternative employment prospects are few. However, not all displaced workers are guaranteed suitable ‘green’ jobs. Here, a BI can help reduce dependence on unsuitable employment prospects and instead allow individuals to foster new economic opportunities within their communities, alleviating the risk of socioeconomic collapse in areas previously dependent on fossil fuels.
The closure of fossil fuel industries also poses a serious threat to the well-being of workers in developing countries, where employment is often informal, temporary, or without contractual guarantees. For example, over-prioritising coal production has stifled economic diversification and depleted alternative work opportunities for millions in India’s coal belt region. In such cases, BI mechanisms can prevent individuals from falling into abject poverty and protect access to basic subsistence.
A gender inclusive just transition
Climate change is an even greater threat for marginalised groups and genders due to their greater representation in sectors such as agriculture and dependence on informal jobs with limited access to social protection.(11) Barriers for women and marginalised populations in education and labour force participation could persist in ‘green’ sectors, further exacerbating their climate risk, income inequality and economic precarity. (12)
Since BI is distributed to individuals, it can provide an important safety net for those in marginalised genders to leave precarious circumstances, including those exacerbated by climate change and even strengthen future work prospects. Examples of direct cash transfer policies in India (13) and Latin America have shown significant success in improving the agency of women and strengthening women’s political and economic participation. (14)
Protecting youth & future generations
The resilience of future generations could be impeded by displacement due to climate impacts, which can further disrupt their access to education or income-generating activities. Globally, several direct cash transfer trials have shown positive effects on educational fulfilment, (15) access to healthcare, (16) reduction in child poverty, (17) and improvement in mental health. (18) With BI, policymakers could provide the necessary financial securities to pursue training, education, or other self-development opportunities that will support future livelihoods and contribute to the resilience of local communities most affected by climate change.
Respecting the role of Indigenous Communities
Many indigenous communities rightly reject the language of a just transition, and other popular ‘green’ terms like ‘conservation’. This is because these communities have, for centuries, been protecting and conserving our environment as a core part of their culture and identity, whilst in the process contributing very little by way of carbon emissions. (19) Systemic policy tools are needed to compensate these communities for the environmental degradation and social harm brought upon them by extractive industries and polluting governments who now seek to adhere to a green agenda. In this context, evidence from a small number of international projects shows that direct, unconditional cash can support Indigenous communities at the coalface of environmental destruction and ensure they are included in a broader conceptualisation of a just transition.
For example, since 2022, the NGO Cool Earth has been providing a Conservation Basic Income to entire communities in Peru. Positive trends are emerging not only around poverty and livelihoods but also environmental protection. (20) Often, financial resources prevent these communities from retaining land, halting the advance of energy, logging, mining, and other extractive industries, and supporting their own symbiotic but unremunerated ways of living with nature. Basic Income is changing this.
Supporting agricultural transitions
Farmers and rural workers are key custodians of the land and, by extension, much of the natural environment. However, between the precarity faced by smallholder farmers and the environmental harm caused by industrial agribusiness, a significant reset is needed for the entire sector. BI can be part of this change, and as the advocacy group Basic Income for Farmers has identified, such a policy could provide financial security for farmers, improve their health and well-being, facilitate more people to enter farming as a viable livelihood, and address a range of environmental outcomes. (21)
In terms of a just transition, BI could provide farmers with the capital required to invest in regenerative agriculture activities and equipment and diversify into less lucrative but more biodiverse production, halting the harmful advance of monocultures. (22) Providing financial security for farmers would promote less energy-intensive and damaging forms of farming through supporting smallholders instead of industrial agriculture, and devolving food security to local communities instead of big agribusiness. (23) It would also represent a form of agrarian justice in many communities where land has been wrongfully enclosed, appropriated, degraded or otherwise unjustly managed in the interests of profit and accumulation.
Supporting individual energy transitions
Approximately one-third of the global population lacks access to clean cooking fuels, instead relying on solid fuels that cause chronic or life-threatening respiratory conditions. (24) In line with SDG 7, BI can provide an urgent and necessary means for households to afford clean cooking fuels.
In developed countries, economic costs remain a paramount factor in the decision-making process for most people’s energy transitions. (25) Subsidies, for example, for renewable energy have alleviated the financial burdens for some, (26) however means-tested and conditional subsidies cannot effectively support energy transitions for broader populations, including those who suffer from fuel poverty. (27) Furthermore, financial flexibilities offered by BI in developed countries could provide individuals with the financial flexibility to engage in eco-friendly activities, including switching to renewable electricity. (28)
How to Make it Happen
The importance of international cooperation as an enabler of just transitions cannot be highlighted enough in this context. The evidence from BI trials indicates how this tool can help bridge the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus. Indeed, as basic income is unconditional and recipients can spend it based on their priorities, the flexibility of cash enables them to address their humanitarian and development needs incrementally and, by extension, helps strengthen social cohesion.
For this, basic income has been on the radar of many international organisations: In a panel organised in 2021 by the Basic Income Earth Network, (29) UNDP, ILO, UNIDO, UNESCO, UN-ESCWA, UN-ECLAC, the IMF and the World Bank spoke in favour of this tool. (30) UNDP issued a report in response to the global COVID-19 challenges presenting possible funding schemes for a BI in 132 countries. (31) The UN Secretary-General in his 2023 landmark initiative, the New Agenda for Peace, (32) recommends basic income as an emerging tool for conflict prevention, promoting resilience and social cohesion, whilst also breaking cycles of violence. And BIEN's submission to the 2025 Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture, which garnered support from 125 organisations from 46 countries highlights the applicability of BI as a Peacebuilding tool. (33) Furthermore, reports by the Special Rapporteurs on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights have consistently referred to the relevance of BI for the fight to end poverty, (34) including the latest report (35) and statement (36) by De Schutter.
How to Pay for it
A redistributive financing model combined with an element of revenue from energy reforms (i.e. carbon taxes and related levies) would be the most politically viable, financially feasible and equitable way to co-fund a BI for a just transition.
Equal Right has outlined a ‘Cap and Share’ policy, with modelling suggesting it could raise upwards of $5 trillion annually for climate finance, including a modest basic income for all citizens of the world of at least $30 a month. (37) Under Cap and Share, a carbon charge of $135 per tonne of CO2 is applied to all global fossil fuel extraction, which would occur within a ‘cap’ or limit on the total amount allowed to be extracted. The revenues would be put into a ‘Global Commons Fund’, which would pay out a global BI, with the level of BI increasing in line with the fund's performance.
Other routes to funding climate finance which could support a BI include redirecting subsidies from fossil fuel, (38) fishing and agriculture, (39) taxing deforestation, fuel and frequent flying. (40) More ‘targeted’ BI policies supporting just transition outcomes have also been proposed, including a ‘Conservation Basic Income in protected areas costing $478bn annually, (41) or one for all citizens in low-HDI nations, costing $442bn annually. (42)
In Conclusion
Given the broad interest in basic income at the highest policy-making levels of the UN and the solid global evidence of this innovative and transformative tool, it is evident that basic income has a significant role in the new socio-ecological order. As such, there is a strong case for developing basic income schemes as a complement to traditional development efforts. The design of BI projects will be context-specific, answering local priorities for a just transition. The Basic Income Earth Network, (43) harnessing unique international expertise on basic income pilots, can provide the technical support to develop and implement such BI schemes.
Das & Sethi, 2023; GiveDirectly, 2020; GiveDirectly, 2024; Kallis et al., 2020; Burkhart et al., 2022; Blaschke, 2020, Davala et al., 2015; Haarmann and Haarmann, 2015.
Fletcher & Büscher, 2020.
Xu et al., 2012; Meise et al., 2014; Shao et al., 2017; Birnbaum, 2009; Howard et al., 2023; Langridge 2024.
Graeber, 2019; Gough, 2017.
Give Directly, 2024, Lawhon & McCreary, 2020
Widerquist, 2013.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, May 2024; Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, IPCC, 2022; Büchs, 2021; Langridge, 2022, 2024; MacNeil and Vibert, 2019.
Fuel Protects show the risks of removing Fossil Fuel subsidies too fast, The Conversation, October 2019; Lawhon & McCreary, 2020.
Eamon Ryan, writing for The Guardian, December 2024.
Tvinnereim & Ivarsflaten., 2016.
Pozzan et al., IMO, 2022.
ibid
Dar et al.,2023.
ibid
Baird et al., 2013.
Russ, 2024.
ibid
Kilburn et al., 2016.
Etchart, 2017.
Basic Income Pilot: One Year One, Cool Earth, November 2024.
The Case for a Basic Income for Farmers, Autonomy, March 2024.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ritchie et al., Our World In Data, 2024.
Biresselioglu et al., 2020.
Solar panel subsidies tripled UK installations. What help is available for homeowners? Euronews, 2024.
Bolton, et al., Fuel poverty in the UK, 2024
How Basic Income Can Support Climate Tech Solutions, BIEN, 2024.
Panel can be watched here.
Temporary Basic Income, Protecting Poor and Vulnerable People in Developing Countries, July 2020
Our Common Agenda Policy Brief 9 A New Agenda for Peace, July 2023
BIEN submission to the PBSO, August 2024.
Basic income possible solution to human rights problem of poverty, June 2017
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter The burnout economy: poverty and mental health, July 2024
Statement on the Second World Summit for Social Development, 2024
Climate Justice without Borders, Equal Right, 2023.
IMF Fossil Fuel Subsidies Data: 2023 Update, IMF, August 2023.
Sumalia et al., 2024.
Barbier, 2012.
De Lange et al., 2023.
Sumalia et al., 2024.
bien@basicincome.org. BIEN published a memorandum on UBI as a necessary component for climate justice in March 2024.