Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

‘Leaving no one behind’: putting words into actions

Mehtap Akgüç, Kalina Arabadjieva and Béla Galgóczi 13th January 2022

The climate transition and its social dimension demand more powerful instruments than the European Commission proposes.

Fit for 55, climate neutrality
Fuelling anger: against the backdrop of reduced wealth taxation, a rise in the carbon tax in 2018 sparked the gilets jaunes demonstrations in France (Salvatore Allotta / shutterstock.com)

The European Green Deal (EGD) of 2019 included pledges to ‘leave no one behind.’ But what about concrete policies? The Just Transition Mechanism and the proposed Social Climate Fund are among the main European Union measures intended to mitigate the impact of the transition to a zero-carbon economy on the most affected regions, vulnerable individuals and businesses. As part of the latest instalment of its ‘Fit for 55’ package of legislative proposals—to achieve a net reduction of 55 per cent in greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030—the European Commission last month published a proposal for a Council of the EU recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality.

The proposal contains guidance to member states on how to address the social and employment effects of the transition to ‘net zero’. While an important recognition of these issues, the non-binding instrument envisaged lacks sufficient detail and attention to some key topics. It should not be seen as a substitute for strengthening the social dimension of EU-level legislative and policy measures on climate change. At most, it should be only a first step in an urgently needed, comprehensive, just-transition policy framework that forms an integral part of the EGD and accompanies maximum climate ambition.

Fundamental transformation

Climate policies are having and will continue to have major effects on the world of work. Millions of new jobs are being created in the transition to a zero-carbon economy but many jobs will disappear (as in fossil energy). Most will undergo a fundamental transformation, and the places where jobs are lost and created will not necessarily be the same. This unprecedented wave of restructuring will have unequal effects in many aspects, including with regard to skills, gender, age, economic activity and region. Sectoral differences will be particularly significant.

The energy and automotive sectors will be most affected by climate and environmental regulations at European and national levels. For coal-based power the regional effects will be harsh, while the transformation of the automotive sector, with a share of more than 5 per cent of total European employment, poses the biggest challenge.

The development of new competences, skills and forms of work organisation will also be critical for expanding sectors such as renewable energy, construction and low-carbon infrastructure. There will be increasing demand for skills in digital competences and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) knowledges, to trigger innovation and breakthrough technologies, greener construction and urban planning, circular-economy practices and so on.

To match the rising demand for specific skills and competences, training programmes and education curricula need to be adapted to the needs of the labour market. The public sector and businesses could co-operate to make these programmes fit for the future. Reskilling and upskilling should be made available to the wider workforce and flexibly delivered (in terms of hours or online access), ensuring that nobody is left behind while attracting new talents to green jobs to avoid skill gaps.



Don't miss out on cutting-edge thinking.


Join tens of thousands of informed readers and stay ahead with our insightful content. It's free.



Distributional effects

Effective climate policies can only be based on a comprehensive but balanced policy framework that includes regulation, standards, taxes and market mechanisms. The latter—such as the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)—are important in sending price signals to market actors but they have significantly regressive distributional effects, disproportionately affecting low-income households, which also have less capacity to adopt low-carbon technologies. Energy and transport poverty are already serious challenges, particularly in some member states and regions.

Some groups will be particularly affected. There is wide evidence pointing to disproportionate vulnerabilities faced by women around the world due to climate change, including reduced access to education, information and decision-making. Migrants comprise another critical group, as most foreign-born workers are employed in relatively low-paying and polluting sectors, with limited or no access to upskilling.

A just transition requires that addressing the employment and distributional effects of getting to net zero should be integral to the climate package—not left to supplementary corrective measures. The EGD recognises this but in practice social- and employment-policy initiatives have remained fragmented and additional. This shortcoming became very clear with the announcement of Fit for 55 last July.

Europe now has a Just Transition Fund (JTF) with limited resources, dedicated mostly to helping coal regions manage the social and employment effects of its phase-out. This is very important but reaches only a small fraction of those affected by decarbonisation. The newly-announced Social Climate Fund (SCF) has a very specific target—to fend off the detrimental distributional effects of a new ETS for buildings and transport—and its €72.2 billion capacity, spread over seven years, will be insufficient to address the challenges ahead. Highly affected sectors such as the automotive and energy-intensive industries have neither dedicated instruments nor a fund.

The proposed recommendation is a ‘toolbox’ for member states to manage the outlined employment and social effects, based on existing tools. Implementation will be monitored via the European Semester. States are urged to provide active support for quality employment and ensure access to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning. Tax and welfare systems should be fair, and access to affordable essential services and housing should be guaranteed for those most affected. The situation of vulnerable groups and the need to involve social partners are emphasised.

Not binding

This sounds good in theory, but how will member states with very different capacities and commitments get there? The instrument is not legally binding and implementation will depend on political pressure via the semester. The propositions are vaguely formulated and leave wide discretion to member states, which may comply relatively minimally. They point to existing funding mechanisms, such as the JTF, SCF, ETS and tax revenues, but no new funding instruments are foreseen for what—if understood in a meaningful way—should be very significant, costly initiatives.

There are other notable omissions. The document refers to ensuring the affordability and accessibility of sustainable mobility, but not low-carbon technologies in general. Though mentioned, there is little emphasis or detail on measures to involve the public meaningfully in climate policies. There is no recognition of the social impacts of decarbonisation beyond the EU, particularly in the global south—including threats to fundamental rights in global supply chains linked to resources and technology necessary for decarbonisation.

The social dimension of the EGD therefore remains significantly underdeveloped, compared with the ‘hard law’ Fit for 55 initiatives. Circumscribed EU competence to act on employment is only a partial explanation. The union must strive towards a robust and comprehensive just-transition policy framework, to guide member states in managing change. It should inter alia include:

  • support for workers in the transition to new quality jobs with measures targeted at specific sectors (automobiles, energy-intensive industries and so on), tailored to national and regional specifics;
  • targeted measures to tackle energy and transport poverty, facilitating the affordability and accessibility of low-carbon technologies for lower-income households—such as retrofitting of buildings, access to renewable energy, vehicle fleet change and developing public transport;
  • comprehensive development initiatives to help carbon-intensive regions towards a sustainable economy, and
  • promotion and strengthening of social dialogue and stakeholder involvement at all levels.

Today a large part of the workforce is in fear of change, a concern justified in a labour-market environment of increasing precariousness. As long as ‘change’ instils fear, the biggest transformation since the industrial revolution ahead of us cannot succeed. Inclusive and comprehensive social, labour-market and economic policies are, therefore, essential to securing social justice, resilience and sustainability.

Mehtap Akgüç
Mehtap Akgüç

Mehtap Akgüç is senior researcher in the economic, employment and social policies unit of the European Trade Union Institute and an affiliate of the Institute of Labor Economics, focusing on labour markets and wage inequalities, migration and mobility, the green and circular economy and economic development.

Kalina Arabadjieva
Kalina Arabadjieva

Kalina Arabadjieva is a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, with a PhD in labour law. She is working on gender equality and the just transition.

Bela Galgoczi
Béla Galgóczi

Béla Galgóczi is Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute and editor of Response measures to the energy crisis: policy targeting and climate trade-offs (ETUI, 2023).

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834676 bcba 6b2b3e733ce2 1 The End of an Era: What’s Next After Globalisation?Apostolos Thomadakis
u4219834674a bf1a 0f45ab446295 0 Germany’s Subcontracting Ban in the Meat IndustryŞerife Erol, Anneliese Kärcher, Thorsten Schulten and Manfred Walser
u4219834dafae1dc3 2 EU’s New Fiscal Rules: Balancing Budgets with Green and Digital AmbitionsPhilipp Heimberger
u42198346d1f0048 1 The Dangerous Metaphor of Unemployment “Scarring”Tom Boland and Ray Griffin
u4219834675 4ff1 998a 404323c89144 1 Why Progressive Governments Keep Failing — And How to Finally Win Back VotersMariana Mazzucato

Most Popular Articles

u4219834647f 0894ae7ca865 3 Europe’s Businesses Face a Quiet Takeover as US Investors CapitaliseTej Gonza and Timothée Duverger
u4219834674930082ba55 0 Portugal’s Political Earthquake: Centrist Grip Crumbles, Right AscendsEmanuel Ferreira
u421983467e58be8 81f2 4326 80f2 d452cfe9031e 1 “The Universities Are the Enemy”: Why Europe Must Act NowBartosz Rydliński
u42198346761805ea24 2 Trump’s ‘Golden Era’ Fades as European Allies Face Harsh New RealityFerenc Németh and Peter Kreko
startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

BlueskyXWhatsApp