The Social Struggle of Climate Policy

The P.W. Segers Chair 2024 focuses on the social aspects of European climate policy. Is Europe too eager in its climate objectives, thereby losing sight of its citizens too much? Therefore, we delve into the core, the beating heart, of the European Green Deal: is it sufficiently social? Can ecological and social objectives be sufficiently aligned? And if so, how can they be interconnected to build a greener and more social (and thus more prosperous) Europe?

We invited Professor Hans Bruyninckx, former director of the European Environment Agency, to talk about this topic. We must give our society a future within the limits of the planet. The goals of climate neutrality and nature restoration are now clear and enshrined in treaties and policies. However, the social dimension of this transition is less clear. In this lecture, Professor Bruyninckx will examine what a sustainability transition entails and how we can view and achieve it from the social dimension.

After the lecture, Hans Bruynickx will be joined by theologian Jacques Haers sj (KU Leuven) and biologist Herwig Leirs (University of Antwerp) for a panel debate moderated by Bea Cantillon (UCSIA). They will delve deeper into the issue of the intertwining of ecological and social objectives. In his lecture, Hans Bruyninckx provided a panoramic view of European climate policy and outlined the challenges of maintaining and strengthening the European welfare model. The quest for the foundations of a socio-ecological welfare state was also one of the tasks of the High Committee for a Just Transition, of which Bea Cantillon was the chair. How do a theologian and biologist view these challenges?