BICEP JUST
Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This means approaching production and consumption cycles holistically and waste-free. The transition itself must be just and equitable; redressing past harms and creating new relationships of power for the future through reparations. If the process of transition is not just, the outcome will never be. Just Transition describes both where we are going and how we get there.
BICEP | JUST
Just Transition strategies were first forged by labor unions and environmental justice groups, rooted in low-income communities of color, who saw the need to phase out the industries that were harming workers, community health and the planet; and at the same time provide just pathways for workers to transition to other jobs. It was rooted in workers defining a transition away from polluting industries in alliance with fence line and frontline communities.
The environmental justice (EJ) movement grew out of a response to the system of environmental racism where communities of color and low-income communities have been (and continue to be) disproportionately exposed to and negatively impacted by hazardous pollution and industrial practices. Its roots are in the civil rights movement and are in sharp contrast to the mainstream environmental movement, which has failed to understand or address this injustice. The EJ movement emphasizes bottom-up organizing, centering the voices of those most impacted, and shared community leadership.
Building on these histories, members of the Climate Justice Alliance, many of whom are rooted in the environmental justice movement, have adapted the definition of Just Transition to represent a host of strategies to transition whole communities to build thriving economies that provide dignified, productive and ecologically sustainable livelihoods; democratic governance and ecological resilience.
We must build visionary economy that is very different than the one we now are in. This requires stopping the bad while at the same time as building the new. We must change the rules to redistribute resources and power to local communities. Just transition initiatives are shifting from dirty energy to energy democracy, from funding highways to expanding public transit, from incinerators and landfills to zero waste, from industrial food systems to food sovereignty, from gentrification to community land rights, from military violence to peaceful resolution, and from rampant destructive development to ecosystem restoration. Core to a just transition is deep democracy in which workers and communities have control over the decisions that affect their daily lives.
To liberate the soil and to liberate our souls we must decolonize our imaginations, remember our way forward and divorce ourselves from the comforts of empire. We must trust that deep in our cultures and ancestries is the diverse wisdom we need to navigate our way towards a world where we live in just relationships with each other and with the earth.
Buen Vivir means that we can live well without living better at the expense of others. Workers, community residents, women and Indigenous Peoples around the world have a fundamental human right to clean, healthy and adequate air, water, land, food, education, and shelter. We must have just relationships with each other and with the natural world, of which we are a part. The rights of peoples, communities and nature must supersede the rights of the individual.
We must work to build new systems that are good for all people, and not just a few. Just Transition must actively work against and transform current and historic social inequities based on race, class, gender, immigrant status and other forms of oppression. Just Transition fights to reclaim capital and resources for the regeneration of geographies and sectors of the economy where these inequities are most pervasive.
Territorial just transition plans define the territories in which the Just Transition Fund will be used. The identification of these territories is carried out through a dialogue with the Commission. These plans set out the challenges in each territory, as well as the development needs and objectives to be met by 2030. They identify the types of operations envisaged and specify governance mechanisms. The approval of the territorial just transition plans opens the doors to dedicated financing under the other two pillars of the Just Transition Mechanism.
The Just Transition Platform assists EU countries and regions with the just transition. It consists of a single access point and helpdesk. It provides comprehensive technical and advisory support. Authorities and beneficiaries can access it to find all they need to know about the funds, including opportunities, relevant regulatory updates or sector specific initiatives. The Platform also promotes actively the exchange of best practices among all stakeholders involved, including through regular physical and virtual gatherings.
Support will be available to all Member States, focused on regions that are the most carbon-intensive or with the most people working in fossil fuels. Member States can get access by preparing territorial just transition plans that cover the period up to 2030, identifying the territories that should get the most support. The plans should also set out ways to best address social, economic and environmental challenges.
BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) and the Keck Array are a series of cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. They aim to measure the polarization of the CMB; in particular, measuring the B-mode of the CMB. The experiments have had five generations of instrumentation, consisting of BICEP1 (or just BICEP), BICEP2, the Keck Array, BICEP3, and the BICEP Array. The Keck Array started observations in 2012 and BICEP3 has been fully operational since May 2016, with the BICEP Array beginning installation in 2017/18.
The Just Tech Fellowship supports and mobilizes diverse and cross-sector cohorts of researchers and practitioners to imagine and create more just, equitable, and representative technological futures. Fellows will identify and challenge injustices emerging from new technologies, and pursue solutions that advance social, political, and economic rights.
New technologies have opened doors to connection, creativity, learning, and justice, but emergent benefits and harms have not been distributed equally. From artificial intelligence to data harvesting to the gig economy, new technology has also ushered in more expansive surveillance and given platforms to hate speech and automated discrimination.
Kim Gallon, founder of COVID Black, an organization that has taken on racial health disparities throughout the pandemic by telling empowering stories about Black life, will create a justice-centered framework for the design and development of health information technology.
Women are on the frontline of crises and change around the world, defending people and the planet. We strengthen the voice, visibility, and collective power of women to join with others in forging a just, sustainable future for all.
Working globally, we offer expertise on transformative and restorative approaches to conflict and harm within criminal justice agencies, community organizations, schools and post-secondary institutions, faith communities, businesses, and philanthropic organizations. We also facilitate large-scale projects involving multiple interested and impacted parties.
What does a more just and equitable future look like, and how do we get there? Driven by our belief in the leading role of the humanities to address the most difficult challenges of our time, the Mellon Foundation has created Just Futures, grants awarded through a competitive process to multidisciplinary, university-based teams across the US who are committed to racial justice and social equality.
In the initial call for responses, we received 165 proposals, from which a jury of distinguished scholars selected 16 winning teams. Funded by three-year grants of up to $5 million, the chosen projects are large-scale cooperative endeavors that will extend purposefully beyond academic departments to neighborhoods, cities, and entire geographic regions, transforming discourse into action with social, cultural, and economic impact. By producing new forms of knowledge, including curricula, public forums, museum exhibitions, publications, podcasts, and more, these visionary thinkers and changemakers will help us understand the past, make meaning of the present, and analyze the conditions required for socially just futures. 041b061a72