ClimateEquality: climate change, public policies and inequalities

14/04

Written by CoLABOR Collaborative Laboratory

Reference
-

Period
November 2024–November 2025

Duration:
12 months

Funding entity
PlanAPP (Science4Policy 2nd ed.)

Website
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Abstract
The ClimatEquality project aims to develop an integrated and comprehensive diagnosis of the impacts of climate change on inequalities in labor income and taxation, as well as to contribute to the design and evaluation of public policies in this area. The analytical and methodological perspective of this project is based on the following assumption: work and employment play a central role in the constitution of societies, therefore the negative impacts of climate change pose structural political challenges.

This project will develop a diagnosis of the impacts of climate change and public policies aimed at addressing them on inequalities in labor income and taxation, focusing on the Portuguese reality but contextualizing it within transversal and multidimensional trends observed at the European and global levels. This exercise will be based on a sequential and articulated research plan, supported, first and foremost, by a theoretical, conceptual and statistical framework, but also by a benchmark of national, European and international policies aimed at adapting to climate transitions.

Based on these theoretical, conceptual, and normative frameworks, an analysis of employment vulnerability in Portugal will be conducted in relation to the impacts of the transition to a low-carbon economy. This analysis will consider the sector of activity and turnover per employee of companies, as well as the socio-professional, contractual, and remuneration profile of workers. The fundamental objective of this analysis is to measure the vulnerability of the Portuguese economy and its different territories to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Complementarily, and in collaboration with institutions participating in ClimatEquality and other stakeholders, a reflection will be developed on the challenges that the Just Green Transition poses to fiscal policies, the Social Security system, and the provision of training and retraining of assets. This exercise will be an important dimension of the diagnosis and proposals that will emerge from the project.

This project is part of Science4Policy 2024 (S4P-24), a competition for Science Studies for Public Policy, an initiative of the Center for Planning and Evaluation of Public Policies in partnership with the Foundation for Science and Technology, IP, and funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Partner institutions:

PlanAPP
IEFP
General Secretariat for the Environment