European Group on Ethics publishes Opinion on how a just green transition tackles inequality at its roots

The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), an independent advisory body to the European Commission, has published its Opinion ‘Towards a Just Green Transition: Addressing structural inequities’. The Opinion was requested to provide guidance in the context of the Commission’s continuing efforts to ensure a just Green Transition that ‘leaves no one behind’.

The Green Transition is not only a shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy. It entails political, social, economic, and cultural change. Both climate impacts and climate action can disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including low-income communities, remote regions, and women, who face structural barriers in accessing green jobs and adaptation measures. Without justice-focused policies, these inequalities risk deepening, eroding public trust, and provoking social backlash.

The EU has been establishing a comprehensive framework that aims to ensure that the Green Transition is socially fair, inclusive, and equitable. The request for the EGE’s advice stems from the need to continuously improve and adapt this framework.

In its Opinion, the EGE highlights the need for policymakers to step up efforts to prevent an unequal distribution of new costs and burdens arising from the transition, while also reducing existing social inequalities. The experts stress that more lasting solutions can be found by tackling the underlying drivers of injustice and enabling inclusive processes that empower all as agents of change.

The EGE recommends that policymakers:

embed justice by design across the entire Green Transition policy cycle, integrating distributional, procedural, recognitional, corrective, and transitional justice, with clear responsibilities for implementation and enforcement
move beyond GDP by introducing justice-sensitive indicators to assess well-being, sustainability, equity, and resilience, backed by independent oversight and transparent reporting on policy trade-offs
make Just Transition targets legally binding at EU level, tailoring them to regional socio-economic realities and ensuring they deliver tangible benefits for local communities
anchor green collective bargaining as a central part of EU Green Transition governance, strengthening the role of workers and social partners
institutionalise public participation as a procedurally embedded component of Green Transition governance, ensuring meaningful involvement of vulnerable groups and permanent deliberative structures at Member State level
embed Just Green Transition principles across EU external action, aligning trade, investment, development, and climate finance with fair labour standards and ethical resource use

Background

The EGE is the independent, multi-disciplinary body appointed by the President of the European Commission, which advises on all aspects of Commission policies and legislation where ethical, societal and fundamental rights dimensions intersect with the development of science and new technologies.

The EGE was established in 1991 by President Jacques Delors. It reports to the President, and to the College of Commissioners as a whole. The group brings together 11 leading thinkers from Europe and worldwide, from the natural and social sciences, the humanities, philosophy, ethics and law. It has provided advice on topics such as democracy, authoritarianism, crisis preparedness and management, geoengineering and solar radiation modification, artificial intelligence, the future of work, and genome editing.