Climate change mitigation and social justice in Europe: stakeholder dialogue closing event

On 4 May 2010 EPHA attended the stakeholder dialogue closing event, "Climate change mitigation and social justice in Europe", where a number of policy recommendations were presented to the chair of the ENVI Committee, Mr Jo Leinen MEP (S&D, Germany) and the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Mr Laszlo Andor.

The recommendations provide ideas for policy makers at EU, national and local levels, as well as civil society and business, to tackle the potential impact of climate change policies on the most vulnerable people in European societies.

Five specific recommendations relate to buildings, mobility, power generation and manufacturing, consumption and attitudes, and social protection. More specifically, it has been proposed that:

 social impact assessments of climate change mitigation policies should include indicators linking social justice, poverty and environmental justice, i.e. from a social justice perspective most climate change mitigation instruments such as taxes, emission trading or biofuels make some products more expensive and could therefore have a disproportionate impact on low-income households`purchasing power;

 The use of energy should reflect its costs and impacts on the climate and the environment. However, higher energy prices will have a significant impact on people living on lower incomes. This should be taken into account in the policy-making process;

 concrete actions should be taken to address the problem of fuel and energy poverty and its health impacts at EU level;

 public transport networks should be improved to support social inclusion, access to employment, and access to consumer goods whilst reducing "last mile" delivery emissions and ensuring that those on low incomes are not worse off;

 emissions trading schemes should be expanded at the global level, but their implications for social justice should be further explored. Income generated by such schemes should be used for environmental and social purposes;

 a move to a low-carbon economy will mean higher unemployment in carbon-intensive industries (located mainly in poorer EU regions). While this could be compensated by employment opportunities within low-carbon sectors, such jobs will not necessarily be accessible to low-income groups: this should be attended to;

 in order to adopt more sustainable consumption patterns there should be available, accessible and acceptable practical information on low-cost, low-carbon consumption for all households, with tailored information for low-income and socially disadvantaged groups. Although now the focus is on "greener", it still demands the same consumption levels rather than emphasising the need to cut them.

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Climate change mitigation and social justice in Europe - FULL REPORT

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