Profits, prices and emissions are soaring, just as wages and working conditions are plummeting. We can’t leave it to the oil and gas industry to determine the scale or pace of a just transition; it’s simply not in their interests.
We’re building power toward a just energy transition in the UK North Sea and putting workers’ experience and expertise at its heart.
In 2020, we co-produced Offshore, a first-of-a-kind survey of over 1,000 offshore oil and gas workers. This work exposed an exploited workforce with rapidly declining terms and conditions, precarious employment, declining wages and widespread concerns about health and safety offshore.
Next, we set about work on Our Power (2023), a groundbreaking collaboration between workers, unions and environmental groups resulting in 10 demands from offshore workers for a just energy transition. These demands are central to a phasing out oil and gas in the North Sea, by:
- Removing barriers that make it harder for workers to move to renewables
- Ensuring job safety, security and fair pay
- Sharing the benefits energy system fairly, with public investment in energy companies and communities
These demands demonstrate the power of climate and labour movements when coming together. Now, we are working to make these demands the foundation for a just transition – for workers, communities and the planet.
