The EU is a front-runner in the transition to a climate neutral and circular economy. Achieving this goal requires a major acceleration this decade of policies related to both the supply-side and the demand-side of EU energy and material use. Questions related to the social and distributional consequences of climate, energy and circular economy policies are increasingly central, in view of ensuring that this transition is fair and just.

IEEP’s work in this area explores socially-just pathways to bring the EU economy within planetary boundaries for climate and material use. We are particularly interested in the nexus between inequality and climate action; analysis of green taxation and other economic instruments; behavioural changes and other demand-side measures; the social implications of waste, resource efficiency and circular economy policies; and social and environmental spillover effects from the EU’s climate and circular economy transition in other regions.