JusTN0W Executive Summary

The world is failing to find the just transition pathways to avoid the worst impacts of climate change (IPCC AR6 SYR 2023, UN NDC SYR 2023). Even the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious 1.5°C temperature limitation is insufficient to avoid catastrophic sea level rise and increasingly severe extreme weather events. At Durham, we already have world-leading expertise in researching the causes and impacts of climate change. With investment in the Just Transitions to a Net Zero World (JusTN0W), we are developing a world-leading interdisciplinary work programme, to research sustainable and just solutions for accelerated decarbonisation of economies, and to achieve lasting societal well-being for the present and future generations. The JusTN0W initiative also aligns with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reaffirms Durham's commitment to global research excellence while contributing to Durham’s global standing. It represents a unique opportunity for our academic community to make a meaningful impact. The Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy (CSDLP) has already brought together research across disciplines and integrated it into global governance frameworks. The University’s further investment in JusTN0W is enabling us to grow our current expertise and capacity to tackle the global scale, depth, and complexity of our project ambition: to use legal, policy and financial instruments to yield groundbreaking solutions to address the climate crisis.

Interdisciplinary work programme:

• Co-create context-sensitive market-based instruments, alongside corresponding policy and legal frameworks that set the right incentives and provide oversight.

• Critique legal compliance criteria and evaluate the effectiveness of Just Transition policies (local, global, intergenerational, multiple measures of wellbeing, and biodiversity aspects of a 'just' transition).

• Harness the potential of machine learning to inform law and policy for Just Transitions.

• Create digital-twin infrastructures for modelling responses to complex climate legislation by quantifying the uncertainties inherent to climate, environmental, economic and policy pathways that delay consensus on climate action.

• Use digital twins and AI to understand the impact of carbon control policies and mechanisms and their costs and benefits for stakeholders - investors, low-income households and others affected by the transition.