Coal still powers around one third of the world’s electricity and sustains millions of jobs. Yet, with the Paris Agreement in mind, ‘coal’ and ‘goal’ don’t go together well. For a net-zero transition, this fossil fuel shoul be phased out well before 2050. But practical experiences of ‘just transitions’—ensuring that workers and communities aren’t left behind—remain rare. Every promising case, however imperfect, becomes thus a precious source for lessons.  In Western Australia, coal town Collie’s ongoing holistic strategy offers some glimpses of what the right track might be.

Founded in the 1880s after deposits of the black mineral were discovered on Indigenous Wiilman Noongar land, Collie became the heart of coal mining and coal-fired energy in Western Australia. Today,  with 1,300 of its 9,000 residents directly employed in this industry, the town faces a significant transition as its public coal-fired power plants are set to close by 2029. For it, nearly A$700 million in investments have been secured to retrain workers, diversify the economy, and attract green industries like battery storage, green steel, and graphite processing. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight, nor came from the top down—it grew from nearly 20 years of not-always-easy cross-stakeholder collaboration, including community participation. As presented by Just Stories, a highly unionized workforce, strong ties to the Labor Party, and state ownership of key assets like the Muja and Collie power stations were some essential factors that enabled unprecedented cooperation among unions, different levels of government, businesses, and the community. The establishment of a Just Transition Working Group for Collie in 2019, pushed by the unions, was a turning point ensuring localized decisions, transparency, and early action on worker-centric measures like paid retraining and personalized plans preventing job gaps. Additional investments in town revitalization, allocated for tourism, infrastructure, and new industries by the state government have helped shift mindsets and built confidence in the transition by connecting climate action to life improvements now, not at some hypothetical future.

Challenges remain, however. Fossil fuel industries cannot be simply replaced by green energy (not with business as usual), which often require fewer workers, with lower wages. Cultural ties to mining running deep in Collie, political infighting (particularly through promotion of ‘nimbyism’ by the conservative party), and gentrification also pose risks. Critics also argue that the transition has not been fully inclusive. Without broader community engagement, and with Indigenous voices largely excluded from planning, the transition risks perpetuating historical injustices. Potential solutions include broadening Collie’s training programs to cover hospitality and care activities, and environmental studies, while creating a ‘Cultural Ranger’ program involving Wiilman communities in land stewardship. Plans are also underway to attract small and medium-sized enterprises to support green industries.

But, overall, it’s important to remember that efforts for just transitions are not just a moral question, but an imperative for public support in energy transitions. Because, if it’s not an (at least attempted) ‘just’ one, what’s it going to be? The cost of inaction in the past shows for example in the link some researchers make between poorly managed coal phase-outs and right-wing populism like Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump. Can we afford more of those for the coming years if we are to contain global warming to sustainable (less bad) levels by 2050?