- Climate policy to date has paid insufficient attention to social equity, tax breaks mainly benefit richer households
- Four pillars enable a socially just transition to climate neutrality and relieve households with middle and low incomes
- The new thinktank Zukunft KlimaSozial presents eleven insights to show how a socially just and climate-neutral future can succeed
Combating climate change remains popular. However, there are concerns about potentially high costs associated with the path to a climate-neutral future. Households with higher incomes emit more greenhouse gases than poorer people. The latter are more vulnerable to the consequences of the climate crisis and have fewer possibilities of adapting. Climate policy to date has paid insufficient attention to social equity, overly affecting lower and middle income households. Climate policy has also been accompanied by too few compensatory measures.
“It is now time for us to prevent the persistence of CO2-intensive lifestyles and promote socially just climate policies that enable all households to transition to carbon neutrality. For this to work, we must conceive our climate and social policies together from the outset,” says Brigitte Knopf, Founder and Director of Zukunft KlimaSozial. “For this, targeted subsidies for low and middle incomes promoting the switch to carbon-neutral technologies play a central role.”
Four pillars enable a socially just transition and provide relief to low and middle incomes
Subsidies are one of the four key pillars of the transition. Beyond that, an extension of the climate-friendly public infrastructure and public services, clever regulatory policies and the revenues from carbon-pricing to be redistributed in form of climate dividends. In a first step, the climate dividend can start as per-capita payments before focussing on vulnerable households.
“In order to differentiate subsidies by social criteria we need a modern state with an automatized and digital administration. That’s citizen-friendly and reduces bureaucracy.” says Ines Verspohl, head of social policy at Zukunft KlimaSozial. “Successful Social Climate Policy offers huge opportunities and helps to improve people’s physical and mental health.”
Thinktank Zukunft KlimaSozial is launched
The publication „Securing a socially just and climate neutral future – eleven insights for Social Climate Policy” marks the start of the thinktank Zukunft KlimaSozial, aiming to connect climate and social policy. Social Climate Policy means analyzing both the social consequences of climate policy as well as the climate effects of social policy. Beyond that, we consider climate and social issues together in every area of life. Beyond buildings, energy and mobility, this also includes health, work and inclusion.
Zukunft KlimaSozial is led jointly by Dr. Brigitte Knopf and Dr. Ines Verspohl. Both have long-standing expertise in climate and social policy respectively. The Founder and Director Dr. Brigitte Knopf was Secretary General of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and has been deputy chairman of the German government’s Council of Experts on Climate Change since 2020. Dr. Ines Verspohl was director for social policy at the Social Association VdK. The interdisciplinary team of Zukunft KlimaSozial consists of seven employees. Zukunft KlimaSozial is independent of political parties and funded by the European Climate Foundation.
Who we are: Zukunft Klimasozial is a scientific thinktank connecting climate and social policy. Our vision is a climate-neutral and socially just future. That means social well-being and inclusion for all. We want to contribute to this future with our expertise, ideas and concepts. We integrate climate and social policy from the outset and develop new solutions. We base our work on a solid evidence-base, show different options and introduce these to the public debate.
Contact:
Sina Lippmann
Press and public relations
Zukunft KlimaSozial
Institut für Klimasozialpolitik
E-Mail: presse@zukunft-klimasozial.de
Tel: +4915560 / 186362
Website: www.zukunft-klimasozial.de
