Productive
and labor
transition
POLEN TJ works to ensure that the energy transition contributes to transforming and diversifying the economies of territories and sectors that currently depend on the extraction and use of fossil fuels. This transformation must generate sustainable productive alternatives, decent jobs, and new capacities, while preventing its costs from falling on workers and communities.
Our work seeks to identify opportunities for industrialization and the development of value chains linked to the energy transition, strengthen the capacities of workers and social organizations, and generate evidence to guide public and private decisions toward a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient economy.
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Areas of Work
Economic Diversification and Productive Transformation
We analyze economic alternatives for territories and sectors dependent on fossil fuels, taking into account their productive capacities, social conditions, and development opportunities.
Green Industrialization and Value Chains
We study the value chains of the technologies needed for the energy transition in order to identify opportunities to strengthen national industry, develop local suppliers, and reduce external dependencies.
Labor Reskilling and Training
We identify the labor and educational gaps faced by workers and propose training pathways that facilitate their access to new employment opportunities.
Decent Work and Social Protection
We promote a transition that protects labor rights, recognizes differentiated impacts on workers, and generates employment and income alternatives in the territories.
Solidarity Economy
We support the strengthening of solidarity economy organizations as an alternative to diversify income, generate employment, and give continuity to labor reskilling processes.
Transformation of Companies and Strategic Sectors
We analyze transformation options for companies and sectors linked to fossil fuels, considering their investment needs, financial risks, and economic, labor, fiscal, and environmental impacts.
Advocacy and Capacity Building
We generate technical inputs and promote spaces for dialogue to strengthen the participation of unions, communities, institutions, and other actors in decisions related to the productive and labor transition.
How Does POLEN Work?
POLEN TJ combines economic research, territorial analysis, financial modeling, capacity building, and public policy advocacy. Our work is built through dialogue with workers, unions, social organizations, companies, public institutions, and territorial actors.
Related Projects
Opportunities for Productive Transformation in Colombia within the Framework of the Just Energy Transition. Analysis of the Colombian Industrial Context, the Value Chains of Technologies Linked to Energy Sources, and the Strategic Economic Sectors Associated with Them
With the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, this project identifies and positions opportunities for productive transformation, industrialization, and reindustrialization associated with the just energy transition in Colombia. Its analyses seek to guide public policies and investment decisions that promote the development of productive activities linked to green technologies.
The project studies economic opportunities related to the phaseout of fossil fuels and the commercial, financial, and technological cooperation mechanisms that could support this process. It also analyzes the value chains of solar photovoltaic technologies and the high-efficiency household appliances sector.
Among its results is the characterization of the solar photovoltaic value chain in Colombia, which makes it possible to identify actors, productive capacities, external dependencies, bottlenecks, and opportunities for national development. This information is complemented by a georeferencing tool of the companies and organizations that participate in the chain, which helps identify concentrations, gaps, and productive opportunities across the country’s different regions.
Financial Scenarios for the Strategic Transformation of Ecopetrol’s Core Business
This project analyzes different scenarios for the transformation of Ecopetrol’s core business and its diversification into low-emission activities and clean energy. To do so, it studies investment needs, costs, risks, returns, and potential impacts on revenue, emissions, employment, and public finances.
The project characterizes the company’s current activities and evaluates diversification alternatives according to their technological maturity, market potential, capacity to generate employment, and relationship with national just energy transition policies.
Based on financial modeling, it seeks to identify lower-risk and more viable transformation pathways, and to generate recommendations that help align Ecopetrol’s future with decarbonization, fiscal stability, energy security, and the protection of workers.
Advocacy Proposal for Industrialization and Just Energy Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean
With the support of Oxfam, this project seeks to position industrialization pathways linked to strategic economic sectors for the just energy transition in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. These pathways are presented as alternatives to promote productive transformation and contribute to closing social, economic, and environmental gaps.
The project develops high-level meetings and gatherings with strategic actors to present analyses and recommendations on industrialization and energy transition. These spaces make it possible to promote technical and political dialogues, gather input, and strengthen regional interest in productive transformation policies associated with the transition.
Labor Reskilling, Policy Advocacy, and Solidarity Economy: Union Tools for a Just Transition
Developed with Colectiva 128, this project strengthens the capacities of coal mining unions in Cesar and La Guajira, especially Sintracarbón and Sintramienergética, so they can participate in energy and productive transition processes in an informed and proactive way.
The project analyzes the labor and educational gaps faced by workers, identifies employment opportunities in emerging sectors, and designs training pathways to facilitate labor reskilling. It also strengthens union participation in national and territorial public policy spaces.
In addition, it supports solidarity economy organizations formed by former coal mining workers, with the aim of strengthening economic alternatives that generate new employment and income opportunities beyond mining activity.
Related Publications
