The Just Transition and Care (JTC) initiative has been working since 2021 to connect the Just Transition framework with care work. We saw the Just Transition framework as a unique opportunity to reorient transition policies towards meeting the largely unmet needs of both care workers and care receivers: people and the environment. This led us to ask: what would a Just Transition look like if it took care work seriously? To realise this right, governments must take direct responsibility, providing adequate funding based on meaningful political representation and participation of care workers, waged and unwaged, in shaping transition policies. Our central argument is that the conditions sustaining human life are not naturally given or infinitely available, rather, they are the product of human work — care work.