Just Transition in Europe and lessons learned from the Spanish experience
Just transition policies in Europe have focused mainly on offering an alternative to workers and territories that depend on the coal industry. The Just Transition Fund, with a budget of €17.5 billion for 2021 and 2027, has expanded the framework to support territories facing socio-economic challenges arising from the broader process of transition towards net-zero emissions. Likewise, the Social Climate Fund (SCF) has been created, with 72 billion euros, to ensure that the climate transition is fair and socially inclusive and benefits vulnerable households, microbusinesses, and transport users affected by energy and transport poverty.
Spain, the first country to have a Just Transition Strategy, has focused its policies on offering an alternative to workers and territories that depended on mining and coal plants. These policies led by the Just Transition Institute have created an innovative framework. Through the Just Transition Agreements, they have articulated projects to generate new jobs in the affected territories.
This round table aims to reflect on the design of just transition policies in Europe and the experiences learned in Spain. Key actors in the administration, companies, unions, and think tanks will help us reflect on the current and future challenges of the just transition. In addition to the experiences in the coal regions and the challenges of creating new jobs in these areas, we will analyze what we have learned about other sectors that could also need to be transformed (such as tourism, automotive, agriculture, etc.). Finally, we will reflect on the best uses of the Social Climate Fund at a time when some citizens, such as in France (tax on diesel) or Germany (new regulation of heat pumps) are beginning to be more reluctant about the social impacts of climate policies.
Session 2 is organised by BC3.
Moderated by:
Mikel González-Eguino, BC3
Speakers include:
- Laura Martín, Director of the Just Transition Institute, MITERD.
- Inmaculada Fiteni, Director of Sustainable Projects, Endesa-Enel.
- Manuel Riera, Climate Action and Just Ecological Transition, UGT.
- Xaquín García-Muros, Ikerbasque researcher at BC3.
- Matthijs Van Marcke, Cabinet of the Belgian federal Minister for Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and the Green Deal.
Find out more about the event and register here.
The Think2030 Dialogue Spain is organised by IEEP, BC3 and Elcano Royal Institute, in association with the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
