How Trump’s energy policies could set America back decades
Just as Donald Trump’s overall economic strategy is based on nostalgia for a bygone era, his fossil-fuel-centered energy policies would represent a quixotic attempt to reverse history.
Society
Analysis and debate on work and welfare, social rights, migration, gender, climate and the future of European societies.
Inequalities unmasked: disparities across the EU
What should Europe do about inequality? The start is to recognise some of its citizens are more equal than others.
The canker among Europe’s roses
Europe’s love for flowers, Ankita Anand writes, ignores their often tainted roots.
Renewables and agriculture—friends, not foes
Hannah O'Sullivan and Cosimo Tansini
There is enough land in Europe for wholly renewable energy without compromising nature protection or food production.
The case for a global climate assembly
Only a minority of respondents in recent surveys trust their governments to achieve a just transition.
Criminalising climate protest while ignoring the crisis
Lotte Leicht and Trevor Stankiewicz
The scales of justice are tilted against peaceful protesters—while those responsible for the crisis act with impunity.
Saving the planet from plastics
If corporate interests undermine efforts to reduce plastic manufacturing, they will derail the fight against climate change.
Trust in crisis: Europe’s social contract under threat
The corrosion of trust underlies many of the social pathologies of today—but there are solutions.
Between the cracks: third-country posted workers
Josephine Assmus, Anita Heindlmaier and Susanne Schmidt
Effective transnational co-operation is required to protect third-country posted workers from abuses.
Sub-minimum wages: young people, old attitudes
Laggard European Union member states must act to ensure abolition of sub-minimum rates of pay.
In difficult times, social cohesion has improved
Inequality has been falling across Europe. But a backlash driven by fiscal ‘discipline’ and ‘competitiveness’ could reverse that.
Reclaiming time from its tyranny
We are running out of time on the climate crisis—yet ‘slow living’ is a key to its solution.
Adapting workplaces to climate change
Nadja Dörflinger and Adrien Thomas
To sustain healthy and safe conditions at work, unprecedented action is urgently needed.
Housing cracks: multi-pronged approach required
Europe’s housing crisis can be solved. But a range of policy tools is needed to do so.
EU climate ambition: ensuring it is lawful
NGOs have increasingly looked to the courts for action on climate change. Now the Court of Justice of the EU is the focus.
Europe’s social agenda: raising the game
Frank Vandenbroucke, Francesco Corti and Gerrit Van de Mosselaer
The Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU has set the social-policy ambition for the next European Commission to follow.