S2 Ep. 09 The Just Transition: Making it Work
This week’s episode comes from Octopus Energy HQ, where Amy Rennison hosts a live Earth Set conversation on one of the most contested — and least clearly defined — ideas in the transition: the “just transition”.
She’s joined by three perspectives spanning community, policy and capital. David Powell from the Local Storytelling Exchange brings a grounded view from communities across the UK, exploring how people actually experience change — often in ways that never show up in policy. Grace Millman, working on just transitions and community energy at Regen, looks at how fairness, participation and regional inequality shape the way net zero lands in real places. And Jordan Fletcher, investor at Future Impact Ventures, shares how capital can be deployed not just to decarbonise, but to create broader social and economic value from the start.
The conversation moves beyond theory into the lived reality of the transition: rising energy bills, contested infrastructure, uneven access to new technologies, and the growing sense among many communities that change is happening to them, not with them.
Together, they unpack a central tension: the need to move fast — and the risk that moving fast without fairness ultimately slows everything down.
If the transition is as much about trust, perception and lived experience as it is about technology, the question becomes this: how do we design a system that people actually feel is working for them?
In this episode you’ll learn:
Why the “just transition” means different things to different people — and why that ambiguity matters
How feelings of fairness, pride and dignity shape public support for climate action
Why most people don’t talk about “climate” — but do care about their homes, bills and communities
How storytelling reveals the gap between policy design and lived experience
The role of trust — and why people are more likely to act on advice from someone they know than from institutions
Why speed vs fairness is a false trade-off — and how unfair transitions often stal
How infrastructure projects like grid expansion are creating tension in local communities
Why energy bills remain the dominant lens through which people experience the transition
Resources & Links
Local Storytelling Exchange – Community-led climate storytelling across the UK
Check out the video mentioned at the start of the episode from the Local Storytelling Exchange that gives the real stories of the green transition
Future Impact Ventures – Investment in the just transition at the intersection of climate, community and capital
Community Energy England – Network supporting local energy projects and ownership models