REJENERAXION PROJECT - EUROPEAN BASELINE REPORT

Driven by decarbonisation policies, the energy transition in Europe - whose energy system is dominated by fossil fuels - is underway but needs further acceleration to match the climate targets of the EGD, Fit for 55 Package, RepowerEU and implement security plans. To this aim the systemic nature of the energy transition is to consider. The changes that occur in this economic sector affects the emission balance in industry, transport, construction among the other and an integrated approach is to apply to each interconnected field: social, technical, economic, legal, environmental as well as at their intersections. Indeed, the road to clean energy is a global and complex process with profound social implications that goes beyond the technological and economic dimensions and directly affects more than 20 million European workers in the energy industry. Trade unions pushed for the just energy transition approach to include the social dimension - in terms of inclusiveness and fairness - in the decarbonisation processes and the role of the social dialogue and industrial relations is fostered for the anticipation and management of the distributional effects of climate policies on the energy sector alongside with the promotion of economic growth, decent work, social equality and sustainable development. Aimed at including social partners in the policy dialogue and the governance of decarbonisation through social dialogue, this paper provides an interpretative framework on the energy transition at European level from the perspective of the just transition approach.

This research report is a part of the project “REJEnerAXion - Energy for a just and green recovery deal: the role of the industrial relations in the energy sector for a resilient Europe”, a European Union co-funded research project (101052341/SOCPL-2021-IND-REL).