Social and ecological conflicts and connections after the European Green Deal: from grassroots to governance

Abstract

In 1987, the Brundtland Report acknowledged that “it is impossible to separate economic development issues from environment issues” (WCED 1987: 12). The Report helped to popularise the idea of sustainable development that was held up by three pillars: the environmental, the social, and the economic. However, its perspective, which became the dominant paradigm in the 1990s, was that the pursuit of economic growth would solve both environmental and social problems. The recent climate change crisis has prompted a reevaluation of the proposed solution. Whereas the Brundtland Report claimed that “Poverty is a major cause […] of global environmental problems” (WCED 1987: 12), climate change identifies rich countries and individuals as the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions historically. At the same time, poor countries and individuals, which generally produce less emissions, are affected more heavily by the consequences of climate change, thus facing a “double injustice” which becomes a “triple injustice” as they often bear the costs of climate change policies (Gough 2015; Fritz et al. 2021). The parallel concerns of climate change and inequality have repositioned the relative importance of the three pillars towards the recognition of a nexus between environmental and social aspects in recent European policies such as the European Green Deal which set a green and just transition agenda by aiming at achieving a fair transition towards carbon neutrality by 2050. An emerging scholarly community publishing under the concept of “sustainable welfare” and related terms such as “eco-social policies” and “eco-welfare” have started to empirically and conceptually explore the synergetic as well as conflictual links between environmental, social and economic aspects of recent European policies, although research on the political context and actors involved in the European green and just transition as well as an analysis of the winners and the losers of such transition are still limited. This panel seeks to understand the shifts taking place in European politics and civil society regarding the relationship between the three pillars of the environment, society, and the economy with a special attention to the convergence as well as the conflicts that may arise in relation to the European green and just transition agenda at the local, national, and international level and within contemporary contexts such as the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. Fritz, M., Koch, M., Johansson, H., Emilsson, K., Hildingsson, R., & Khan, J. (2021). Habitus and climate change: Exploring support and resistance to sustainable welfare and social–ecological transformations in Sweden. The British Journal of Sociology, 72(4), 874-890. Gough, I. (2016). Welfare states and environmental states: a comparative analysis. Environmental Politics, 25(1), 24-47. WCED. 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. United Nations.

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