Just Transition and the European Green Deal

Regional Perspectives

Everardus Wilhelmus (Michiel) Stapper, Marcin Baron, Ralph Horne, Nevelina Pachova, Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040747469
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Industrial Management
• Index: Economics

This book examines how the concept of the just transition - the idea that environmental and social concerns must be reconciled - has been implemented in European Union policies. Over the past decade, the just transition has gained traction in both policy and academic circles. With the introduction of the Just Transition Mechanism, the European Commission launched the world's most ambitious attempt to mitigate the adverse social and economic effects of the European Green Deal. This book provides a timely and detailed examination of how the just transition unfolds in practice.

It opens with a conceptual overview of the just transition, followed by a chapter on the European Green Deal and the Just Transition Mechanism. Seven case study chapters then examine how the just transition unfolds in specific European regions. We synthesize the findings in the conclusion. The book develops a new theoretical framework for studying policy implementation. While most such studies focus on policymakers, the perspectives of those affected by policy, especially the marginalized, often remain absent. Each case study thus begins with the region's history and the needs of its marginalized communities. The authors then assess how well these needs align with regional just transition policies.

Therefore, this book argues that it is epistemologically important to understand the lifeworld of policy recipients, particularly those who are marginalized, to comprehend how policy works. This helps determine whether the just transition can prevent resentment regarding climate policies. This book concludes that a just transition cannot be achieved unless community-level concerns are more aligned with regional, national, and European policy goals.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of editors and contributors
• 1 Introduction: a just transition for whom? Policy grammars and grammars of communities
• 2 The legal and regulatory context of the just transition
• 3 Post-carbon León: survival, revival, and caveats on an inclusive process of change
• 4 Living on the margins in Istria: navigating the complexities of a just transition
• 5 Filling in social “justice gaps”: going beyond technical dynamics in just transition processes
• 6 Riding the waves of transition: an insight into the decades of industrial restructuring in the Polish region of Silesia
• 7 Living on the margins of a just transition: the case of Prahova, Romania
• 8 At the crossroads of just transition: lessons from East Germany
• 9 Voices from below: energy transition and the vulnerable in Stara Zagora
• 10 Conclusion: toward a transition built on community and social justice
• Index