Don’t Just Look in the Mirror, Look at the System

Context:

The Just Transition project has as its aim to inspire and inform citizens about the implications of a just transition to a highly sustainable economy, which involves more than technical measures. We need a new economic system that cares for people and the planet, in which all costs and benefits are fairly distributed. How do we sustainably transform our labour market? How do we make sure the transition to renewables is inclusive and equitable? These are some of the questions we try to answer.

About the Event:

In the last decades growing affluence has led to increased resource use and pollutant emissions. This puts a specific responsibility on the shoulder of affluent citizens. A global Just Transition is only possible if we say farewell to ecological gluttony. At the same time, it would wrong to translate this insight in the first place into individual responsibility. Just as you can’t eat healthy in a candy shop, our economies and cultures incite overconsumption and inhibit sustainable lifestyles. How to get rid of your car when there’s no good public transport, why would you change your diet when governments promote eating meat?

Without denying individual responsibility, the solution is found in collectives answers, structural changes of life provisioning systems that enable a good life for all within planetary boundaries.

Speakers:

– Julia Steinberger, Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne. She studies the relationships between the use of resources and performance of societies, researching how human well-begin can be realized within planetary boundaries. She is a Lead Author of the IPCC report.

– Jaap Tielbeke, environmental editor of the Dutch progressive magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. He is also the author of the recent book ‘The Myth of the Green Consumer’ (in Dutch).

Practicalities:

Register your participation by emailing at info@oikos.be

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This event is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Oikos Think Tank and with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.