The European Green Deal and its translation into action: Multilevel governance perspectives on just transition

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which the concept of justice, embedded at the core of the European Union's public communications regarding its climate goals, is regarded coherently across governance levels. What do stakeholders across governance levels understand by justice and how is this reflected in their overall perceptions regarding the just transition? We aim to make both a conceptual and an empirically informative contribution by qualitatively exploring how the normative framing at EU level is translated via national contexts at the central level in Member States and then further to local communities via regional and local policy-making mechanisms, in four EU Members States – Finland, France, Germany, and Romania. Our work reveals the deeper impact that the differing interpretations of justice have on the shape policies take and on the allocation of funds, tasks, and responsibilities across governance levels.