What justice? The scope for public participation in the European Union Just Transition

Abstract

The climate crisis shapes and is shaped by inequalities. This nexus urges us to consider the justice questions arising from tackling the crisis. Against this background, the notion of “just transition” is gaining ground. Its main idea is that the socio-economic burden of climate measures requires corrective mechanisms to ensure that the climate transition is just. However, what “justice” means in this context and its consequences for legally protected rights to participate in decisions about the transition deserve more scrutiny. This article addresses these questions by exploring the conceptual understanding of justice and the space for citizens’ participation within the EU Just Transition policy and legal framework. It argues that the EU Just Transition is merely built on a distributive understanding of justice and that this constrains participation. But procedures cannot be ignored if the EU is seriously committed to a just transition. The article suggests that a closer alignment with participatory environmental rights under the Aarhus Convention could strengthen the procedural justice credentials of the EU Just Transition framework while upholding its distributive approach. EU Just Transition, public participation, climate transition, participatory environmental rights, procedural justice