TANDEM

INTRODUCTION

One year ago-on July 14th, 2021-the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels and to turn the EU into the first climate neutral continent by 2050. 

We have asked the coordinator, prof. dr. Imre Keseru how this project is part of the overall EU’s 2050 climate targets.

Imre: To reach EU’s 2050 climate goals, policy makers will have to design and apply transition pathways adapted to the specific context at local, regional, and national scale. However, numerous attempts at implementing transition pathways across Europe illustrate the difficulty of designing policies that combine efficient climate action and justice considerations, especially for the most vulnerable groups. For example, the Yellow Vests movement in France was triggered by the introduction of a carbon tax on oil, which had a significant financial impact on the poorest parts of the population. Multi-stakeholder engagement in policymaking is absolutely necessary to mitigate the negative impacts of climate policies in particular inequalities and injustice. The TANDEM project aims to advance, structure and disseminate these practices by developing a transdisciplinary approach integrating deliberative, art-based and appraisal methods to identify and analyse emerging inequalities of low-carbon transition policies, as well as by co-designing equitable, just and effective alternative transition pathways with stakeholders. For doing so it will rely on complementary research methods such as desk research, survey, interviews, participatory system-mapping, participatory appraisal and art-based deliberative visioning. Five different case studies will be carried out in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Poland and Austria, around controversial transition policies in energy and mobility affecting urban and rural populations.

Hence, what is the role of engaged citizens? Why and how are they involved?

Imre: In the multi-stakeholder engagement in policymaking, I talked about, role of citizens as a stakeholder can’t be overstated. For a successful policymaking that can mitigate the negative impacts of climate policies it is imperative that citizens are truly involved as much as possible in the policymaking process in a meaningful manner. Treating citizens as receivers of one-way communication at the very end of policy implementation has the potential to be catastrophic or unsustainable at the very least when we are talking about long term policymaking with goals that are to be achieved after 28 years from now. In this perspective, various citizens’ assemblies were experimented with, “We The Citizens” in Ireland, the Citizens Convention for Climate in France and ’Mini-publics’ in Scotland to name a few. In TANDEM citizens from all parts of society will be involved in the transition policy design and evaluation process through the identified interaction network of potential stakeholders of different types such as affected citizens, public authorities, and representatives from the private sector. Special attention will be paid to vulnerable groups among citizens. A replicable arts-based approach that facilitates the apprehension of data linked to the transition to carbon neutrality will be used to reduce barriers to participation of citizens. Consequential involvement of engaged citizens will help to better understand the distributional repercussions of the transition across social groups and address issues of procedural and recognition-based justice concerns.

AIM

Numerous attempts of implementing transition pathways across Europe to meet EU’s 2050 climate goals illustrate the difficulty of designing policies that combine efficient climate action and justice considerations. One reason is that the socially diverse, and thus also geographically dispersed demands and vulnerabilities of potentially affected groups do not appear as a well-structured input at any stage of the policy-making process. The TANDEM project aims to address these issues by developing a transdisciplinary approach integrating deliberative, art-based and appraisal methods to identify and analyse emerging inequalities of low-carbon transition policies, as well as to co-design equitable, just and effective alternative transition pathways with stakeholders, especially the affected citizens from vulnerable groups

METHODOLOGY

The TANDEM project will invite stakeholders to create policy alternatives and mitigation measures that address their equity and justice concerns for a transition policy. To guarantee the co-creation of just and sound transition policies, the project will rely on the significant implication of a diverse stakeholder group representing all the affected and concerned populations (especially from vulnerable groups), and the effective communication of the relevant information to formulate sound suggestions. This entails stakeholder analysis, identification and engagement, stakeholder formatting of the analysis, delivery of understandable and relevant information on policy impacts to and with the stakeholders, open deliberations to define interventions with citizens and stakeholder weighting and ranking of these interventions. It will require (1) desk research, survey and interview methods, (2) participatory appraisal methods, (3) participatory system-mapping methods and (4) art-based deliberative visioning. The TANDEM project therefore develops and implements a transdisciplinary approach that combines data-driven and participatory methods to deliver its objectives. The implementation of the project will require an interaction between consortium partners and stakeholders in 5 European case studies in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Poland and Austria that address controversial transition policies in energy and mobility affecting urban and rural populations.

IMPACT

Project outcomes of TANDEM are expected to lead to a better understanding of the distributional repercussions of the transition to climate neutrality across sectors, social groups, countries, regions, cities, and in the labour market that will help implement the commitment to “leaving nobody behind”. It will address procedural justice concerns in the transition to carbon neutrality, via deeper and more consequential involvement of stakeholders from all parts of society, especially affected vulnerable citizens in the transition process. The project will produce new scientific evidence to inform EU, national and regional governments about policies for designing inclusive, socially fair and economically viable transition plans and post-COVID recovery packages that take due care of the most affected regions, cities, sectors and parts of society, including vulnerable individuals and households. If the outcomes of the TANDEM project are put into practice it can lead to increased societal and political acceptance for climate transition strategies, including renewable energy projects and more sustainable mobility concepts, based on greater involvement of those most affected, resulting in better capacity for co-designing policy frameworks that enhance inclusiveness while minimizing adverse distributional effects and inequalities.