The EU is not just thinking about addressing climate change — it is thinking just and fair transitions that take into consideration everyone’s needs equally.
For the first time ever, there is a climate change strategy in place that acknowledges that adaptation – like mitigation – creates winners and losers.
The EU’s Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) recognizes that we should not just protect our world against the impact of heat waves, violent storms, floods or droughts, but that any measures taken should do so justly, “leaving no one behind.”
“We must show solidarity with the most affected regions in Europe, such as coal mining regions and others, to make sure the Green Deal gets everyone’s full support and has a chance to become a reality,” says Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission.
These are not just nice words. The EU is backing its proposal through a three-tiered investment plan that will provide the most affected regions at least €150 billion over the next six years (from 2021-2027) to alleviate the socio-economic impact of the climate-neutral transition.
The plan offers participants a single access point and help desk that provides comprehensive technical and advisory support regarding funds, opportunities, regulatory updates or sector specific initiatives.
Who Will Benefit?
Although all Member States are eligible, the focus will be on regions that are the most carbon-intensive or with the most people working in fossil fuels.
Member States can get access by preparing territorial just-transition plans that take into consideration the present until 2030. Territories within each state that need the most support should be identified, along with ways to best address social, economic, and environmental challenges of that area.
Beyond Borders
The solutions that JTM offers are extensive. But it is an idea whose time has come. And not just for the EU, but for the world.
In his article, The EU adaptation strategy is everybody’s cup of coffee, Richard J. T. Klein, writes: “The EU Adaptation Strategy presents not only priorities for action, but a vision of how adaptation to climate change should take place… But the laudable aspiration for just resilience must extend beyond Europe. That is because, as the EU Adaptation Strategy itself notes, the EU and the rest of the world are inescapably intertwined.”
Klein, a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, a non-profit research and policy group, uses coffee to illustrate his point.
On average, each EU citizen imports a little more than 5kg of coffee beans per year, based on Europe’s coffee consumption. Due to the nature of coffee production, Klein says that the fertile area where beans grow could eventually be cut in half due to climate change.
This will not only impact Brazil, where 1/3 of the world’s coffee beans grow, but also all the roasters and retailers in Sweden, Germany, or Italy.
However, European roasters could diversify and change their supply chain, if needed. But “the smallholder farmers in Brazil, who rarely have unemployment insurance, or a financial buffer to draw on in dire straits,” do not have such a luxury. Nor do they have much of a public voice.
If left in the hands of coffee traders or roasters, contracts would likely be canceled and assets sold in an attempt to reduce loss, while the Brazilian farmers would lose their livelihood.
According to Klein, in order “for the EU to deliver on its Adaptation Strategy and create just resilience, the Commission as a whole will have to sign on to the idea. Climate adaptation cannot be the exclusive domain of the Directorate-General for Climate Action.”
It is trade that is key, and the DGs — the Directorate-Generals for Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and Food Safety, and Mobility and Transport, for example, that have the mandate to negotiate trade agreements (such as the EU–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement). These agreements incorporate the sustainable feasibility of those agreements globally as well as domestically.
The Just Transition Mechanism is a much needed and welcome policy, and the EU should be applauded for its creation.
However, Klein cautions that all aspects of trade and supply chains should also be included in order for it to be truly just. Leaders in Brussels and the world are going to have to think fair and just globally.
Specific Provisions
Below are specific provisions as listed on the JTM website. For people most vulnerable to the transition, the program will protect them by:
- Facilitating employment opportunities in new sectors, as well as those in transition.
- Re-skilling opportunities. Improving energy-efficient housing.
- Investing to fight energy poverty.
- Facilitating access to clean, affordable, and secure energy
For companies and sectors, active in or comprising carbon-intensive industries, the Just Transition Mechanism will:
- Support the transition to low-carbon technologies and economic diversification based on climate-resilient investments and jobs.
- Create attractive conditions for public and private investors.
- Provide easier access to loans and financial support.
- Invest in the creation of new firms, SMEs, and start-ups.
- Invest in research and innovation activities.
Moving up the ladder, Member States and regions, with high dependence on fossil fuel and carbon-intensive industries, will be protected by the Just Transition Mechanism by:
- Supporting the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient activities.
- Creating new jobs in the green economy.
- Investing in public and sustainable transport.
- Providing technical assistance.
- Investing in renewable energy sources.
- Improving digital connectivity.
- Providing affordable loans to local public authorities.
- Improving energy infrastructure, district heating and transportation networks.
