GEF’s Knowledge Communities address a diverse set of topics. They are built around and with (a) central expert(s), who deliver(s) a political stock-take political proposals and ideas for discussion with a wider group of actors. For this Knowledge Community, GEF works together with Philippe Pochet, tackling the interdependent relationship of “Welfare states and the climate emergency”.
About the Knowledge Community
Recent data show that significant, albeit uneven and insufficient, progress has been made to mitigate the climate emergency. These have been particularly visible in industry and renewable energies, but much less so in transport, housing and agriculture, which implies that the efforts to be made now will particularly affect these latter sectors, implying major repercussions in terms of distribution and lifestyle.
This next phase of the transition comes at a time during which the consensus around the European Green Deal seems to be crumbling, with parties of the right and center-right highlighting the costs for the poorest populations to put the brakes on the transition. The question of inequalities, both in terms of emissions and the consequences of change, has become central, and is being instrumentalised to stop rapid climate action.
This is an extremely harmful discourse, as it slows down climate mitigation, worsening the longer-term effects on exactly the populations that are and will be hit hardest by the climate crisis: the poorest. We therefore urgently need a framing that can create consensus amongst enough people against this dangerous narrative.
Simply put, this is where the concept of the welfare state comes in. The potential role of social protection in reducing social tensions and accompanying change needs to be brought to the forefront of the political debate. However, to deliver the argument, we need to adapt our approach: climate policy and welfare state policy needs to be developed in such a way that they reinforce each other.
A core question to this is how the welfare state can protect people from climate risks and enable them to mitigate those risks. The aim of this Knowledge Community is to develop EU-focused political proposals to advance in this direction.
Expert
- Philippe Pochet, Affiliated Professor Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa
Political Briefs
Climate Emergency and Welfare States
In this political brief, we advocate for an urgent evolution of European welfare states. Recognising the heightened risks faced by citizens, we emphasise the necessity to reinvent and expand welfare states to effectively respond to these new environmental threats.
In the media
Renewing the welfare state, Europe’s green trump card Social Europe
Get involved!
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For further information, send an email to taube.vanmelkebeke@gef.eu!