Just transition
Just transition is the term used to describe the transition to a climate-neutral economy while securing the future and livelihoods of workers and their communities. A just transition to a climate-neutral economy provides and guarantees better and decent jobs, social protection, more training opportunities and greater job security for all workers affected by global warming and climate change policies.
Find the latest content on this topic below.
Mapping green behavioural public policy in the EU
This paper maps how far Member States have built capacity to develop and deploy such behaviourally informed policies. It finds substantial disparities across the EU, with a troubling pattern: the countries under the greatest transition pressure are often the least equipped to design the human-centred policies that would ease it.IT sector in focus: Evolution of the EU’s digital workforce
The ICT sector is driving digitalisation and AI adoption across Europe, yet skilled labour shortages are holding back its growth. This report examines employment and working conditions for ICT specialists and the challenges shaping one of the EU's most critical sectors.Social implications of the just transition: Citizen support, behavioural adaptation, and policy impact in Europe
This research report examines Europeans’ experiences of the green transition at a time when competitiveness has become a central EU policy priority. Using quantitative analysis of EU-wide data, it identifies who supports green policies, who is changing behaviour, and who risks being left behind. Combining this with a comparative policy analysis across all 27 Member States, including reflections on the use of behavioural insights in green public policy, the report highlights critical gaps and provides evidence-based guidance for aligning competitiveness with an effective and equitable green transition.Eurofound's research is shaped by the key challenges for social cohesion and a just transition in a changing environment. It covers the areas of working conditions, industrial relations, employment and living conditions, providing evidence that can assist policy action.
Main topics linked with the move towards a just transition include working conditions and sustainable work, employment and labour markets, digitalisation, the future of manufacturing, people’s living conditions and well-being, restructuring, skills and training and youth, among others. Research findings could potentially feed into the work of the Just Transition Platform, which assists EU Member States and regions to unlock the support available through the Just Transition Mechanism.
Eurofound also collaborates with the European Environment Agency (EEA) on research around the transition to a climate-neutral economy, in particular environmental and socioeconomic convergence.
A just transition at European level focuses on two core issues for transition, moving towards a green and digital Europe where no one will be left behind.
As a committed party to the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU submitted its long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in March 2020. It sets out the extent of the transition across sectors and regions and lays the ground for designing a just transition.
European Commission: 2050 long-term strategyopens in new tab
Green and digital transition
At the heart of the EU’s long-term strategy is the European Green Deal, which is one of six European Commission priorities for 2019–2024 and the compass to guide Member States towards a green transition that is fair for all citizens. It will contribute to the financing of the transition that Europe faces through its Just Transition Mechanism. In the political guidelines for the next European Commission 2024–2029, Ursula von der Leyen reiterated the importance of staying the course with the European Green Deal goals and committed to a significant increase in funding for a just transition across the next long-term budget. This will go hand in hand with the development of a Quality Jobs Roadmap.
European Commision: Political Guidelines 2024–2029opens in new tab
Responding to the way digital technology is changing our lives, another Commission priority is to create a Europe fit for the digital age, leading the transition to a healthy planet and a new digital world through its European Digital Strategy.
Strong social Europe for just transitions
In January 2020, the European Commission presented its Communication ‘A strong social Europe for just transitions’. This vision to reinforce social Europe prepared the way for an Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, which is the European social strategy to make sure that the ‘transitions of climate neutrality, digitalisation and demographic change are socially fair and just’.
Eurofound’s work related to the just transition links in with several of the Commission’s 2019–2024 priorities, and is highly relevant here.
European Commission: A European Green Dealopens in new tab
European Commission: An economy that works for peopleopens in new tab
European Commission: A Europe fit for the digital ageopens in new tab
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
Watch the webinar - Eurofound LIVE: Is Europe's green transition in jeopardy?
2 August 2023
Green, clean and keen to converge? A convergence analysis of environmental quality of life in the EU
This report explores the dynamics of the environmental performance of the EU Member States and the extent to which the disparities in their performance have narrowed since the early 2000s. The report is a product of cooperation between Eurofound and the European Environment Agency, with the technical expertise in convergence of the former meeting the expertise in European environmental issues of the latter. It focuses on three levels of analysis: headline indicators, residential-level indicators and household-level indicators. In order to explore the multifaceted issue of environmental quality of life in the EU, the report investigates environmental indicators through a convergence analysis. The results suggest that the EU is on the right track to becoming carbon neutral, although the speed of the greening process varies among the Member States. A fast and steady improvement in performance can be seen for most of the indicators. One noteworthy finding is that the economic downturns of the past two decades negatively affected the household-level indicators examined, which focused on energy poverty.
19 July 2023
Supporting regions in the just transition: Role of social partners
This report investigates the involvement of social partners in the just transition to a climate-neutral economy, with a particular focus on the territorial just transition plans. These plans aim to support the regions most negatively affected by the just transition by assisting workers to retrain, relocate and find other jobs, and also support industries that need to phase out fossil fuels or other greenhouse gas-intensive activities. The role and input of the social partners in these plans and their views on the just transition are explored. An analysis of social dialogue practices and examples of collective agreements shows the range of topics covered by the social partners. The report also investigates the role of the energy crisis in the just transition and how it has contributed to delays in the implementation of territorial just transition plans in certain Member States.
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Marianna Baggio
Research officerMarianna Baggio is a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound, working on aspects of the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), as well as on the topics of gender pay transparency and informal care. Prior to joining Eurofound, she served as a policy analyst at the Competence Centre for Behavioural Insights of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. She has worked as a postdoc at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele (Milan) and the University of Trento. She also brings extensive experience from a previous role as corporate social responsibility (CSR) officer in South Africa. Marianna holds a PhD in Economics and Management from the University of Trento, specialising in behavioural economics.
Massimiliano Mascherini
Head of UnitMassimiliano Mascherini is Head of the Social Policies unit at Eurofound since October 2019. He joined Eurofound in 2009 as a research manager, designing and coordinating projects on youth employment, NEETs and gender equality. In 2017, he became a senior research manager and spearheaded new research on monitoring convergence in the EU. In addition, he led the conceptualisation of the 2026 European Quality of Life Survey. In 2025, he was awarded the Brendan Walsh prize for the best paper published in Economic and Social Review. Previously, he was scientific officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He studied at the University of Florence, where he majored in actuarial and statistical sciences and attained a PhD in Applied Statistics. In 2014, he obtained a scientific qualification as Associate Professor of Social Statistics and Demography from the Italian Ministry of University and Research. He has been visiting fellow at the University of Sydney and at Aalborg University and visiting professor at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Tina Weber
Senior research managerTina Weber is a senior research manager in Eurofound’s Working Life unit. Her work has focused on labour shortages, the impact of hybrid work and an ‘always on’ culture and the right to disconnect, working conditions and social protection measures for self-employed workers and the impact of the twin transitions on employment, working conditions and industrial relations. She is responsible for studies assessing the representativeness of European social partner organisations. She has also carried out research on European Works Councils and the evolution of industrial relations and social dialogue in the European Union. Prior to joining Eurofound in 2019, she worked for a private research institute primarily carrying out impact assessments and evaluations of EU labour law and labour market policies. Tina holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Edinburgh which focussed on the role of national trade unions and employers’ organisations in the European social dialogue.
Stavroula Demetriades
Senior research managerStavroula Demetriades is a senior research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. She has responsibility for research in the areas of the green and just transition, social dialogue, management practices, innovation and hybrid work. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Aalborg, Denmark. She also has an MSc in Economic Policies from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc in Regional Development from Athens University. Prior to joining Eurofound in 1999, she worked in research institutes, in different posts in the public and private sectors, and conducted organisational and socioeconomic studies. Her main research interests include the green and just transition, human resource management, work systems, innovation, employment and social dialogue. She is also adjunct professor in the Business School at University College Dublin.
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