Policy Brief

Climate change is a systemic issue that cannot be addressed by siloed thinking and policymaking. The transition to a political, social and economic model needs a holistic understanding to address the planetary emergencies and to implement the commitments of the EU Climate Law. By holistic, we mean a theoretical ground aware of interdependencies between different policy fields.

Transforming societies and economies while respecting sustainability principles means mainstreaming environmental concerns whenever we design policies for all other areas. At the same time, like the effects of climate change, also environmental policies can affect different areas, such as gender and health.

The ‘Climate mainstreaming: Breaking down the silos’ series comprises four policy briefs that foreground and disentangle these interlinkages by connecting climate matters with different disciplinary backgrounds (justice, gender, digital and health).

The objective is to influence and assist progressive policymakers and stakeholders who want to adopt holistic, comprehensive and environmentally sustainable policies that can remedy rather than exacerbate existing inequalities. 

Climate justice

In light of the international nature of the climate crisis, an inclusive account of climate justice that does right by emerging economies is imperative.

After reviewing principles of climate justice which can help allocate the costs and benefits of climate policy, the policy brief suggests a luck-prioritarian account of climate justice as the most normatively plausible way to ensure social inclusivity and furtherance of the general well-being of the least well-off, while factoring in the responsibility of individuals.

Such an account of climate justice provides a plausible avenue for responding to the “triple injustice” outlined in the United for Climate Justice declaration authored by FEPS and partners under the chairpersonship of Teresa Ribera, Minister for the Ecological Transition in Spain. Indeed, it provides an international framework of justice, as well as an intra-national framework for individual-level and intergenerational climate justice.

This policy brief provides policymakers with tools for a more systematic application of principles of climate justice. The normative principles outlined above provide a starting point for mainstreaming climate justice in other policy fields, such as health, gender and digital, where a move away from siloed policymaking is proving urgent.