Workers around the world are facing profound changes to their lives and livelihoods as a result of the climate crisis and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Rising global temperatures, and extreme weather threaten physical health and job security, while corporate climate mitigation and adaptation strategies are fundamentally reshaping production models, sourcing decisions, and supply chain relationships. At the same time, climate transition efforts are driving the growth of new industries and transforming existing ones, creating new employment opportunities while also exposing workers to severe harm. More often than not, renewable energy projects deepen exploitative labour practices of the fossil fuel era, rather than charting a new path by providing decent, green jobs.
Despite these challenges, the transition presents an opportunity to create decent work, strengthen labour rights, and deliver shared prosperity. Workers are central to delivering that vision. As those closest to workplace realities, workers are often the first to identify and challenge abuses and play a crucial role in developing practical solutions that strengthen labour rights, expand social protections, and ensure the benefits of the transition are shared more equitably. Yet without deliberate action, transition costs and risks will continue to fall disproportionately on workers' shoulders, particularly those already facing precarity, marginalisation, and exploitation.
A worker-centred just transition grounded in social dialogue, collective bargaining, and meaningful worker participation is not only critical to advancing decent work, but also to ensuring climate goals are achieved in a fair and equitable way.
“Workers must not pay for the green transition. Too often, brands and employers shift the costs of climate action onto workers—through job losses, lower wages, or unsafe conditions. This is unacceptable. The responsibility for a greener economy must be shared fairly by governments, employers, and brands, not placed on those already most vulnerable. We need a democratic industrial transformation—one that puts workers at the center, with strong social dialogue, collective bargaining and protections for all, including informal and migrant workers.”IndustriALL energy and Just Transition director Diana Junquera-Curiel
Explore news, analysis and research on the just transition in policy and practice: from the impacts of corporate climate strategies on workers in global supply chains, to labour rights and working conditions in sectors driving the green economy. The portal seeks to highlight emerging examples of worker-centred transition models that demonstrate how climate action and decent work can advance together.
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“It would change my life”
Remedy, reparations and justice for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy industry. Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia’s energy transition suffer a double indignity: severe abuse and, eight months after those abuses were exposed, an alarming failure by major multinational businesses to provide remedy.
“We want equal training opportunities, consultation and secure jobs”Garment worker, Bangladesh
Garment workers in fashion's transition
Across the apparel and textile sector, brands are adopting ambitious climate transition strategies, yet workers remain largely excluded from these planning and decision-making processes. At the same time, insufficient financial and technical support from brands make the achievement of these targets impossible in practice. Where buyers shift transition-related costs onto suppliers, livelihoods are adversely impacted and a cycle of vulnerability, inequality, and irresponsible purchasing practices is reinforced.
Our research explores how worker participation, collective bargaining, and responsible purchasing practices can work together to deliver a transition that is both fair for workers and effective in meeting climate goals.
Who pays for fashion’s green transition? The reality for Bangladesh’s suppliers and workers
BHRC surveyed 15 of the top international brands sourcing from Bangladesh about the concrete steps they were taking to support suppliers and workers with climate mitigation and adaption.
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Global fashion brands' purchasing practices shifting financial pressure of decarbonisation onto suppliers
Emerging reports have shown that the financial cost of the just transition in Bangladesh is being offloaded onto suppliers, as brands demand greener supply chains while failing to factor in the cost of its implementation into their prices, squeezing suppliers' already limited cost margins.
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The Missing Thread
This report reveals how 65 top fashion brands are failing to integrate worker rights and representation into their climate strategies. The result is a transition that risks entrenching existing inequalities, rather than building resilience and shared prosperity across supply chains.
"Without the labourers, these projects would not be possible… Labourers are the foundation of these projects, the ones who turn difficult plans into reality through their hard work. Yet, they are subjected to such unfair treatment."Nepali construction worker on NEOM Green Hydrogen Project
Migrant workers in the energy transition
Migrant workers are crucial actors in the transition to a low-carbon economy and make up a substantial share of the workforce for one of the world's fastest-growing and most lucrative industries: renewable energies. Yet evidence indicates that renewable energy projects and supply chains continue to rely on exploitative labour practices, even as examples of more responsible approaches emerge sporadically across the sector.
Our work examines labour rights and working conditions for migrant workers at the forefront of the energy transition, identifying both risks and pathways to more worker-centred and rights-respecting models.
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“We were treated as if we were machines”: Migrant workers powering Saudi Arabia’s energy transition
Interviews with Nepali and Bangladeshi workers in the supply chains of well-known multinationals revealed migrants on these projects are vulnerable to systemic human rights violations.
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Gulf energy explorer: Renewables, rights and risks
This portal aims to shed light on migrant worker rights in the renewables industry. By collecting data on renewable energy projects in the Gulf and mapping company stakeholders it drives positive action across the value chain.
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Rush to renewables: Toward migrant worker rights and a just energy transition in the Gulf
This BHRC collaboration with human rights organisation Equidem found the renewable energy sector in the Gulf falls woefully short in identifying and mitigating worker rights risks, even as it expands at pace.
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