Just Transitions to a Net Zero World

Second Annual International Conference

Thursday 9th & Friday 10th October 2025 Durham University

About the Annual Conference

The Durham University’s Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy (CSDLP), in cooperation with the European Centre of Just Transition Research and Impact-Driven Transfer (JTC) at Martin Luther University Halle- Wittenberg, are holding a joint International Conference on ‘Just Transitions to a Net Zero World’ in Durham, 9th-10th October 2025.

The conference will bring together academics, policymakers and practitioners to explore just transition pathways to Net Zero amid climate change, environmental destruction, biodiversity loss, geopolitical shifts, technological disruption, and systemic inequities.

By drawing together interdisciplinary perspectives, we will address the challenges of conceiving and implementing just transitions to Net Zero. We will use an interdisciplinary lens to determine where our research can have the greatest impact and accelerate the speed of transitions.

Conference Themes

Theme 1 - Interdisciplinary Research for Just Transitions.

Theme 2 - Digital Infrastructures for Just Transitions.

Theme 3 - Financing Just Transitions.

Theme 4 - Science for Just Transitions.

Conference Synopsis

The arrival of the concept of Just Transitions at the level of the international climate change regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement provides a new opportunity to fundamentally shape the Paris Agreement’s preambular imperative of a just transition.

Just Transitions entail the transformation of societies towards sustainable ways of life. At the international level, the global stocktake decision of 2023 reaffirmed that “the global transition to low emissions and climate-resilient development provides opportunities and challenges for sustainable development and poverty eradication”. Yet one year later, at the 29th Conference of the Parties in 2024, Baku, no consensus between countries could be forged for a substantial decision on the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP), not even on the identification of elements for dialogue. Proposals so far include to develop stand-alone principles mechanisms and measurements for Just Transitions, or to embed these into national Adaptation plans (NAPs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and Long-Term Strategies (LT-LEDS).

This conference seeks to advance the academic discourse but also the policy and international developments so that the agreed goal of “Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science” (1/CMA.5 para. 28 d) can move closer to reality. Our interdisciplinary focus acknowledges the international and national contestations of pathways and elements that form Just Transitions, and the need to find implementable solutions that reflect the social, economic, technological, legal and ethical dimensions.

Objectives

• Assessing progress on the interdisciplinary research agenda of JusTN0W and the JTC in respect of Article 6 implementation and outcomes of COP29 for the emerging country-to-country carbon trading markets & international and national environmental legislation.

• Analysing the potential of technology and AI to manage interdisciplinary decision-making under uncertainty.

• Investigating the potential of Digital Twins as a supporting technology.

• Understanding how stakeholders are recalibrating just transitions in the changing political world order.

• Comparing developments in international law as they emerge from the ICJ and the ITLOS advisory opinions.

• Mapping the science-policy interface with a view to the scientific production and policy uptake of climate science evidence.

Sponsorship opportunities

For companies committed to sustainability, we offer conference sponsorship opportunities. Sponsoring the Just Transitions to a Net Zero World, Annual International Conference allows organisations to showcase their leadership, connect with like-minded individuals, and enhance brand visibility among key stakeholders and influencers in Sustainable Development Law, Finance and Policy-making.

To discuss how your organisations can get involved, please contact Kate Morris - Senior Business Development Manager at CSDLP to explore sponsorship opportunities in more detail. kathryn.l.morris@durham.ac.uk.

Places are limited.

Please register using the registration link. 

For further information, please contact:

JusTN0W – Just Transitions to a Net Zero World

Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Durham University

Kate Morris, kathryn.l.morris@durham.ac.uk

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

European Centre of Just Transition Research and Impact-Driven Transfer (JTC)

Transregional Just Transition Governance: socio-legal and polit-economic perspectives

PD Dr. Katrin Seidel, katrin.seidel@jura.uni-halle.de