Day Zero – SDG Bergen 2023: “The Green Transition: Oil, Unions, and Climate”

Day Zero (8 February 2023) marks the first day of the SDG Bergen Conference. The day offers free, hybrid (in-person and digital) opportunities for workshops, debates, exhibitions related to the SDGs. The conference is running under the theme “A just transformation to a sustainable future” and GRIP will host a session called “The Green Transition: Oil, Unions, and Climate“.

As part of The Green Transition: Oil, Unions, and Climate, GRIP will screen a short documentary film called “Talking Union, Talking Climate” directed by Vivian Price at Bergen Global. The film portrays a conversation between three oil workers from Nigeria, USA and Norway. The film captures their sentiments on the intersection of the oil industry and topics such as climate change, green transition, and union work. After the screening, a panel discussion that includes the film director and several scholars subsequently follows.

The green transition confronts us with a wide range of difficult choices, decisions, and dilemmas. As green transition calls for the abandonment of fossil-based energy regimes, including the oil industry, this raises questions about disappearance of workplaces, livelihoods, and sources of energy in a global system that heavily relies on oil industry. Moreover, the socioeconomic realities in various oil-producing contexts represent different starting points and different trajectories for what just and equitable transition can and should involve. The Green Transition: Oil, Unions, and Climate session, therefore, explores questions that include the following:

1. • What could green and just transition look like going forward?
   • Can the oil industry pivot and become a greener industry?
   • How can the oil industry along with its knowledge and labour contribute to facilitating a green transition?
   • Is it the industry or the unions that should be at the forefront of this transition?
   • How can labour unions mitigate the risk for their workers to be left without a job, at the same time work to save our climate?

This event is free and will be held both in-person and digitally. You must sign up for Day Zero/the Bergen SDG conference to participate.

Register for the conference here.

PARTICIPANTS

1. • Vivian Price: California State University, Dominguez Hills
   • Ragnhild Freng Dale: Western Norway Research Institute
   • Marianna Betti; University of Bergen
   • Austin Ablo; University of Ghana
   • Elina Troscenko (moderator): GRIP

We invite a diverse audience to participate, whether you are a student or work in academia or research, civil society, non-profit, in a start-up company, large corporation or small business.