Just Transition

Background

The European Green Deal (EGD) aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with climate neutrality in 2050. European societies should undergo a transition towards a carbon-neutral society. The EGD seeks to design deeply transformative transition strategies, under the principle of leaving no one behind. This implies that no European citizen should be put at a disadvantage because of the EGD. In this regard, gaps and societal barriers concerning the social acceptance of transition strategies need to be addressed. There is a need to better understand the link between transition strategies and the impact on marginalised communities, to understand the causes and consequences of growing polarisation vis-à-vis transition strategies and to give citizens more influence on how the transition will take place.

Key Project: BOLSTER

BOLSTER - Bridging Organisations and marginalised communities for Local Sustainability Transitions in EuRope is a 36 month Horizon Europe project that aims understand how marginalised communities are affected by EGD-related policies and whether involving them in decision-making processes increases the support for transition plans. BOLSTER will deliver new scientific evidence on decarbonisation transition strategies and how they intersect with various dimensions of inequality, such as gender, race, age and class. It will conceptualise the principle of leaving no one behind by developing participatory governance models and transition guidelines based on climate justice and gender equality. BOLSTER will launch action research in ten European regions. Seven of those regions are at high risk of being affected by the EGD, as they have a high concentration of carbon-intensive industries. The other three regions have already undergone an economic transition and will be studied in order to learn from the past.

Helix Ecosystem

The Just Transition Helix is an international Open Innovation community of specialists in social inequalities and related disciplines. Researchers, industry actors, national/EU-level policy makers, civil society and participants of other relevant projects and relevant actors across Europe/the world are invited to join the Helix.

The Just Transition Helix was launched as a focus for impact and dissemination services in support of the BOLSTER project's ambition to foster a truly collaborative ecosystem. In achieving this ambition, BOLSTER will contribute towards facilitating the transformation to a climate neutral society.