Potential un-equalising effects of the European Green Deal and avenues to mitigate them

The European Green Deal aims to accelerate the economic transformation needed to mitigate climate change and environmental degradation, while not leaving anyone behind. Yet, tackling the climate and environmental crises requires substantial changes at multiple levels; changes in societal practices and, with that, in the behaviour of individuals, communities, and organisations. Gendered and intersectional inequalities are likely to emerge in this context: Those facing the greatest levels of risk are often those who face the highest inequality and barriers to accessing their rights in everyday life, as acknowledged also by the IPCC. Moreover, people not able to access or implement the measures required for mitigating climate change, e.g. for economic, educational, structural and other reasons, are at great risk of becoming marginalised further; others that are not vulnerable yet are at the risk of becoming marginalised (e.g., young families, people living on the countryside). In sum, climate change and policies to mitigate it are exposing existing inequalities, and likely to further reinforce or create new ones. Nonetheless, times of crises are also a time of opportunity to be ambitious and often inspire people to find solutions through co-created and inclusive strategies. The paper presents some results of the first round of data collection within the pan-European project ACCTING, investigating triggers that lead to behaviour changes in relation to everyday practices among socially vulnerable populations. The data discussed in this paper comes from twenty narrative interviews conducted in Sweden and Germany with individuals recruited based on their intersectional vulnerability profiles (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic background). Furthermore, most of the recruited have undergone notable behavioural changes in relation to their everyday food and eating practices. The objective of the research was to hear their ‘stories’, based on the assumption that their sharing of such stories can harness experiences of past events and circumstances which can help to improve collective planning and policy for the future. Stemming from the rich data collected, the paper presents and discusses some relatively clear trends in what enables behaviour change across individual backgrounds and countries. Most notably, social dynamics and interpersonal relationships are revealed as multifaceted and forceful enablers of behaviour change. In contrast, lack of resources and wider structural conditions are repeatedly emphasised as hinders of behaviour change, underscoring multiple risks and trade‐offs – but also opportunities – coming along with the Green Deal policy programme and initiatives. The insights contribute to the understanding of the impact of policy initiatives like the European Green Deal on social inequalities, and vice-versa, of social inequalities on the success of such programmes. Also, they render several insights that can help in ambitions to anticipate potential negative effects of sustainability transitions, and ways to mitigate such impacts.