Just Transition or No Transition

ReGeneration 2030's position on why building people power is our generation’s only way forward

Our generation has spent a decade asking the people in power to “listen to the science”. It’s becoming increasingly clear that it isn’t individuals not understanding what the problem is, but those on top, feeding the fire the fossil fuel industry keeps burning, who are unable to stop tearing down our future. That means we need to build power in ordinary people in order to demand change - not beg for it. And we can only do that if we fight not only for the greater good of all, but also for the improvement of our daily lives.

For too long, the youth climate movement in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region thought that we could win a liveable future for our generation by convincing our political leaders with data and facts. 

Now, in 2026, we know that this strategy is futile. Whilst there are big bucks to be made, the powerful will continue to push to make them, however much we tax and beg. 

Climate change is a feature, not a bug, of our current political and economic system. 

That’s why climate facts aren’t decisive in policy-making. Fossil fuel companies aren’t “at war with science”; they are organising political power within government and law-making bodies to protect their profits.

So in order to save ourselves, and the planet with us, we need to take the profit motive out of energy production and distribution, and put people and the planet back at the heart of our political and economic system. And to do this, we can’t rely on the current leaders of our system - the ones who are making the big bucks from burning the carbon - to help us out. 

We need to build the opposite, the counter-power: people power. 

The good news is that it’s possible to transition away from our destructive economy whilst at the same time improving the lives of ordinary people. That’s what a just transition is all about - linking direct, material improvement to people’s lives with climate action. With a good just transition programme, we can help ordinary people see that jobs, electricity, and good housing are beneficial - and turn climate action from being a “cost” that ordinary people have to bear, into a crisis that requires massive systemic transformation which will improve our lives. 

We can build this power in a number of ways.

1. Putting together policy programmes like the Green New Deal that formulate the pathway towards a just green transition 

2. Building worker power to force economic reorganisation in key sectors - particularly energy production, transport and logistics.

3. Building Sámi power to fight back at key infrastructure points and protect biodiverse nature

4. Winning governmental power in elections 

These are the fights where our generation can make the biggest difference here in the Nordics and Baltics - no longer hoping that powerful people will listen to the facts and act, but building power from the ground up to force the change that we know we need to see.

Want to join the conversation? Come to the ReGeneration Week launch call on Thursday 5th March at 17 CET / 18 EET