Ecology

Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher. We use the values of freedom, sustainability and equality as the foundation on which we examine society’s most pressing challenges. We are committed to publishing cutting-edge thinking and new ideas from the most thought-provoking people. This archive page brings together Social Europe articles on ecology.

Legal hurdles facing a green and just transition

by Ingo Venzke on 24th November 2020

The irony of genuinely ‘free trade’ is only regulation enables it. Europe cannot lead the ecological transition without recognising this.

How public development banks can help nature

by Elizabeth Mrema and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez on 17th November 2020

Public development banks will be critical to global efforts to ‘build back better’. They should complement their climate investments with nature-based goals.

Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

by Adrien Thomas and Nadja Dörflinger on 12th November 2020

Unions can be torn between mitigating climate change tomorrow and saving jobs today. A significant Just Transition Fund could ease that dilemma.

Supporting the transition to post-pandemic sustainability

by Denis Gregory and Maarten van Klaveren on 9th November 2020

Executive remuneration packages not only drive a race to the top but do not account for companies’ environmental ‘externalities’. This needs to change.

WSI policy brief: the formula for a social Europe

The strengthening of the social dimension of the EU is back on the agenda of European politics. The European Pillar of Social Rights, the revision of the Posted Workers Directive and the initiative for a European minimum wage are interpreted by some as a turning point. However, the road to a more social Europe is still very long. Against that background, this paper formulates a social Europe thus: social minimum standards plus a reconfiguration of the internal market and economic and monetary union in a manner compatible with the pillars of the European social model.

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Two scenarios for sustainable welfare: new ideas for an eco-social contract

More and more nation-states are committing to net-zero carbon by 2050 at the latest, but none has faced up to the transformation of economies, societies and lives this will entail. This paper considers two scenarios for sustainable welfare and discusses the implications for incomes, jobs and welfare states. The first is the Green New Deal framework to decarbonise the economy while addressing the distributional and welfare issues involved. Expanded public provision of ‘essentials’ would be a necessary social component. The second goes further to counteract runaway private consumption by building an economy of egalitarian sufficiency with ceilings to income, wealth and consumption. This would require further labour-market and welfare-state interventions. The paper provides a framework for these two approaches and identifies policy options on jobs and incomes.

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Living, working and Covid-19 (update April 2021): mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year

The third round of Eurofound's Living, working and Covid-19 e-survey, fielded in February and March 2021, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe following nearly a full year of living with restrictions. The report analyses the main findings and tracks developments and trends across the 27 EU member states since the survey was first launched in April 2020. It pinpoints issues that have surfaced over the course of the pandemic, such as increased job insecurity due to the threat of job loss, decline in mental wellbeing, erosion of recent gains in gender equality, fall in trust vis-à-vis institutions, deterioration of work–life balance and growth of vaccine hesitancy. The results of the survey highlight the need for a holistic approach to support all the groups hit hard by the crisis, to prevent them from falling further behind.

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Discover the new issue of the Progressive Post!

Social rights for platform workers, fiscal-rules reform and EU enlargement, as well as the challenges and opportunities for social democrats in the post-pandemic context, are the main topics of the latest Progressive Post magazine.

After more than a year of the pandemic, we are in a crucial political moment: policy decisions made now will drive reforms and sustainable growth in the years to come. For progressives to take ownership of these topics, this issue of the Progressive Post analyses some of these opportunities.

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Legal hurdles facing a green and just transition

How public development banks can help nature

Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

Supporting the transition to post-pandemic sustainability

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AVAILABLE HERE

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