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Europe’s ambitious climate protection commitments promise economic and political changes reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution of two centuries ago, highlighting the need for social policy to take center stage.
The European Union’s “Green Deal” is a barometer of the global actions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and counteract the increasingly frequent and damaging heat waves, storms and floods that result from climate change.
This makes the 27-nation EU a test case of the ability of countries around the world to marry the necessary shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources, with jobs and social justice, particularly for the segments most vulnerable of the population.
As it moves forward with plans to become climate neutral by mid-century and push the rest of the world to follow suit, the EU is in a position to show how social policy can help foster political consensus in times of fundamental economic change. .
A good example is found in the recent package of EU legislative bills from the European Commission aimed at achieving a major step on the road to climate neutrality by 2050: a 55% reduction in the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions. in 2030 from 1990 levels (instead of just a previously agreed 40 percent reduction).
The package includes a controversial proposal to establish a European emissions trading system for buildings and road transport. Such a regime would establish an initial blanket emissions cap for the two sectors, force polluters to purchase a permit for every ton of carbon dioxide they release, and most importantly, it would steadily reduce the annual supply of those permits.
This would be a new European tool to help EU countries meet their different 2030 targets of dramatically reducing discharges from sectors outside of the bloc’s main emissions trading system, or ETS, which covers power plants, factories and aviation within the EU.
Unlike the existing ETS, the parallel European system for buildings and road transport would have a direct impact on consumers. It threatens to increase fuel costs for households and highway drivers.
The idea is producing unusual political companions, as EU governments and the European Parliament hold deliberations as part of the approval process.
Some green activists are interested in the emission cuts guaranteed by the proposal and, as a result, are aligned with conservative forces traditionally in favor of market-based policies.
At the same time, many center-right voices have joined a chorus of left critics of the proposal who warn that it could worsen “energy poverty” in Europe and provoke a popular revolt across the continent similar to that of the “vests. yellows “. ”Movement in France in 2018.
What unites all voices is the desire to address the social implications of cleaning buildings and road transport.
With more than 30 million Europeans no longer able to afford adequate home heating, and amid sharp increases in energy prices triggered by a natural gas restriction, the EU is going to need precisely this kind of alignment of political views. on social issues to maintain the Green Pact. on time.
If you broaden the lens, you will see that social considerations appear more and more in the formulation of EU policies that involve the economy and climate protection.
Take the 18-month EU system for classifying climate-friendly business activities, a regime known as a ‘taxonomy’ meant to drive more investment towards sustainable projects.
While the issue has recently made headlines about whether the bloc will label gas, a fossil fuel, as a kind of green investment, the Brussels-based Commission has been quietly weighing an expansion of the European classification system to include social taxonomy. .
Given that social affairs in the EU have traditionally been regulated at national level, this exercise by the Commission is noteworthy. It shows the inextricable link between social investment and sustainable development.
A truly just transition, especially for workers, also requires fully developed European industrial and energy strategies. These must go beyond training and social compensation; the goal must be the large-scale creation of quality jobs, especially in regions where employment is now linked to fossil fuels.
Without this evolution in EU thinking, the Green Deal would cause social unrest and increased political extremism.
In this context, the EU should also:
- Map and address the impact of the green transition on employment, industries and regions in Europe;
- Establish a European framework to guarantee the right of workers to information, consultation and codecision with regard to transition plans;
- Create (at national and EU level) advisory councils made up of employers, workers and government representatives to help design the Green Deal and just transition policies.
It is these kinds of people-centered initiatives that should anchor decision-making around the world on climate protection. The result would be to show that, in the age of environmental threats that affect us all, social policy can be the new political unifier rather than an old divider.
Sharan Burrow is general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and vice-chair of the supervisory board of the European Climate Foundation. Luca Visentini is Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism