Dr. Jeanne Moore:

As I am a policy analyst with NESC and have been involved in the just transition, climate and sustainable development work, I am happy to answer that. It is important to recognise that just transition permeates national policy, even the rural development policy. It is permeating throughout Irish approaches to climate action now. There are two chapters in this regard in the climate action plan. There are still a number of areas that are in development - the Deputy mentioned the commission - as outlined in the plan.

We look forward to hearing more about the details of that. It will include a policy on research that will be focused within the Department to monitor and feed back learning from just transition practices into policy. These are very welcome initiatives and will take time to develop. While I agree with the Deputy, it is great to see that in there and that just transition is a strong part of the climate action plan. It is important to acknowledge that there is progress.

It is valuable to think of just transition in the current discussion. I welcome that the committee is widening this discussion by inviting some of NESC's council members to attend. The process part of just transition is the piece that is often not given enough attention. We are very much aware of the focus on leaving no one behind in the outcome but the process of meaningful engagement can take place at a national, regional, local or sectoral level, as our work on agriculture will demonstrate. It is important that the process the committee is engaged in is part of a just transition, in the questions it is asking and in the way the process is being framed. In Scotland, the just transition commission ended up going back to government. The Scottish Government recently thanked the commission for its questions and said it was going to take a particular approach. This very much acknowledges that co-design and collaborative solutions at a granular level lead to direct action.

For example, when talking about sectors and working with key sectors now, trying to embed a just transition approach all the way down into those sectors is perhaps a very good way to think about it. It is not only a matter for national level legislation and policy structures but a question of how it is embedded at a granular level and also at a community and place-based level. How can we understand local communities and use just transition as a way of engaging participative, collaborative solutions? This came up at yesterday's meeting with the idea of citizens’ assemblies and really engaging with the local communities. Just transition can be embedded and used in that way to come up with new solutions. That is my brief answer to the Deputy's question. Ms Garvey may wish to add to that but I will be happy to contribute more on this issue.