Climate Commitments Aligning with Labour Justice: Can India Lead a Just Transition for the Global South?

Just transition, an approach towards achieving a low-carbon economy by balancing environmental protection notions and labour justice, in a fair, inclusive, and equitable manner, is gathering attention worldwide in 2025. The implementation of just transition policies among the countries in the Global South is the center of global discourse today. As India strives to meet its climate commitments, the challenge in balancing emission reduction and the protection of its labour is a huge responsibility, especially when India is a fossil-fuel dependent country with a carbon-intensive economy. Considering this, the central objective of this study is to examine India’s existing legal and policy framework relevant to a just transition, assess its adequacy in addressing transition related challenges, and evaluate India’s position within the Global South. This study adopts a doctrinal methodology and critically evaluates the climate change initiatives, labour policies, and legislative framework in India. A comparative analysis of policies and regulatory regimes of other countries from the Global North and South will also be carried out. The paper concludes with a few suggestions for developing a better and adequate regulatory regime that provides adequate safeguards to the labour’s without leaving them behind during this transition process.