Speaker: Seona Candy
In July 2021, the European Commission launched the ‘Fit for 55’ climate policy package, designed to bring EU policies up to speed to achieve a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Recognising that these technical mitigation measures may have negative social impacts, current and previous policy announcements have also included economic measures to support a ‘just transition’ and emphatic pledges to ‘leave no one behind‘. The formulation of ‘just transition’ for these measures is problematic and has been criticised as narrow in both focus and scope and severely limited in achieving the radical changes required by multiple crises facing society. In a recent position paper, the European Climate Action Network (CAN) argue for comprehensive just transition plans developed inclusively with and for all stakeholders that form part of a long term vision supporting a just transformation of society (CAN, 2021). In this session we will present key aspects of our deliberative visioning methodology currently being developed as part of the TANDEM project. It combines deliberative democracy principles with arts-based and foresight methods to enable citizens to imagine desirable futures, contextualise the transition from the perspective of vulnerable groups, and develop just transition pathways in their regions.