Just Transition and Workers’ Rights in the Global South: The Recent Argentine and Chilean Nationally Determined Contributions

Mauro Pucheta, César Álvarez Alonso and Pedro Silva Sánchez
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Mauro Pucheta: Law Department, School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Penrhyn Road Campus, Kingston University London, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2EE, UK
César Álvarez Alonso: IE Law School, Business Area Campus, IE University, 28046 Madrid, Spain
Pedro Silva Sánchez: Escuela de Derecho Público, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 8320000 Santiago, Chile

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: Just transition tackles the consequences of a transition to a zero-carbon economy while addressing the issues of equity and justice so that nobody is left behind. It is a roadmap that informs the action of states towards sustainable development. The paper focuses on how Argentina and Chile, with a high percentage of informality in their economies and their labour markets, have embedded just transition into their legal orders through the submission of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The analysis of both experiences to protect workers is based upon three aspects: the Global South perspective; the 2015 ILO guidelines; the historical step that Argentina and Chile have reached in the submission of their second NDCs since these are the first Latin American countries to have expressly included just transition and work in their NDCs. After a thorough analysis, the paper concludes that this seems to be a promising first step that requires, nonetheless, a global approach in order to protect the environment and ensure that no one is left behind.

Keywords: just transition; workers’ rights; Paris agreement; informal economies; Chile; Argentina; Latin America; Global South; Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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