This paper surveys pressing issues facing current and future social policies in the European Union (EU) at the juncture of social justice demands and environmental concerns. European policy-makers ...have in fact only recently acknowledged the notions of environmental justice and environmental inequalities, which have been part of the US policy arsenal for almost two decades. Yet, challenges to equality and fairness in the environmental domain are many and growing within the European Union. After having defined environmental justice and environmental inequalities in the European context, the paper addresses two contemporary dimensions of those challenges for EU social policies: vulnerability and exposure to environmental disaster and risk; and fairness in environmental taxation and the related issue of fuel poverty.
► Issues within the European Union (EU) at the juncture of social justice demands and environmental concerns. ► Definition of environmental justice and environmental inequalities in the European context. ► Focus on vulnerability and exposure to environmental disaster and risk. ► Focus on fairness in environmental taxation, including fuel poverty.
Purpose of Review
This paper presents an analytical review of recent research on social inequality caused or compounded by ambient air pollution in the European Union.
Recent Findings
While empirical ...studies have developed significantly both in the academic and institutional arena, they have largely focused on only one aspect: the exposure and sensitivity of individuals and groups to air pollution according to various criteria, documenting substantial and overlapping inequality.
Summary
While EU policy should better address this proven impact inequality, research is also needed on new fronts of air (ine)quality (namely mental health impact and indoor air quality) as well as other types of ambient air inequality (such as inequality in responsibility and impact of air pollution mitigation policy).
While ecological crises are worsening before our eyes, existing models and frameworks do not connect clearly enough the degradation of natural systems to the differentiated responsibility and ...vulnerability of human groups. This article attempts to articulate human well-being and the preservation of the Biosphere, using a social-approach highlighting two critical nodes: the essential link between the health of ecosystems and the health of humans; the reciprocal relation between justice and sustainability.
Des murs ou des digues? Laurent, Éloi
The Tocqueville review,
2019, Volume:
40, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Les États-Unis sont soumis au printemps 2019 à deux urgences, l’une apparente (la crise migratoire), l’autre bien réelle (la crise climatique). Cet article détaille ces deux crises et envisage les ...rapports qu’elles entretiennent entre elles pour proposer de repenser les protections collectives contre le changement climatique à la lumière de l’exemple américain.
RésuméPour sortir du piège de l’austérité, il faut cesser d’opposer l’économique et le social et considérer les politiques sociales comme un investissement dans le capital humain. L’éducation des ...enfants, l’accompagnement des jeunes et l’émancipation des femmes devraient être les priorités pour préparer l’avenir.
•Critical commentary of the 2021 Global Health Summit’s Rome Declaration provided.•Health-environment framework proposed placing human and natural well-being at its core.•A paradigm shift from ...‘cost-benefit’ to ‘co-benefits’ is called for.•Six (6) key pathways proposed for societal transition towards sustainability.
We offer here a brief commentary of the Rome Declaration (May 21, 2021) in light of a recent Report on the Health-Environment Nexus released by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEALL). Although the Rome Declaration promotes at the highest level a new health philosophy, we argue this vision is still incomplete as it fails to include a constructive criticism of current growth-driven economic systems. To add to the Declaration’s principles, we offer a holistic health-environment framework and six (6) key pathways to place human and natural well-being – rather than continuous growth in production and consumption – at the heart of our development model. We call for the urgent need to recognize the health-environment nexus as the core of planetary health and thus evolve – in our societal transition towards sustainability – from usual cost-benefit analyses to the recognition of ‘co-benefits’ among health, the environment, and the economy.
How moving beyond GDP will improve well-being and sustainability Never before in human history have we produced so much data, and this empirical revolution has shaped economic research and policy ...profoundly. But are we measuring, and thus managing, the right things--those that will help us solve the real social, economic, political, and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century? In Measuring Tomorrow, Eloi Laurent argues that we need to move away from narrowly useful metrics such as gross domestic product and instead use broader ones that aim at well-being, resilience, and sustainability. By doing so, countries will be able to shift their focus away from infinite and unrealistic growth and toward social justice and quality of life for their citizens. The time has come for these broader metrics to become more than just descriptive, Laurent argues; applied carefully by private and public decision makers, they can foster genuine progress. He begins by taking stock of the booming field of well-being and sustainability indicators, and explains the insights that the best of these can offer. He then shows how these indicators can be used to develop new policies, from the local to the global. An essential resource for scholars, students, and policymakers, Measuring Tomorrow covers all aspects of well-being--including health, education, and the environment--and incorporates a broad range of data and fascinating case studies from around the world: not just the United States and Europe but also China, Africa, the Middle East, and India.
S’interroger sur la mission de la protection sociale au XXIe siècle et sur ses éventuelles ambiguïtéssuppose de revenir à sa vocation première. La protection sociale ne consiste pas seulement dansla ...reconnaissance des risques et l’assurance des accidents : elle vise à transformer l’incertitude enrisque pour mutualiser et réduire celui-ci et ainsi atténuer l’inégalité sociale. Cette mission, quirelève de la logique de l’assurance et de la solidarité, est donc éminemment éthique et politiqueet diverge en cela de l’assurance privée. Il ne s’agit pas tant d’assurer des accidents individuelsque de produire de la sécurité collective. Cette fonction de sécurisation au fondement d’un ÉtatProvidence qui entend mesurer, superviser et prévoir la société s’appuie sur la distinction établie en 1921 par Franck Knight 1921 1 entre risque et incertitude : « Il faut distinguer entre deuxtypes d’incertitude, celle qui est mesurable et celle qui ne l’est pas. On utilisera le mot “risque”pour l’incertitude qui est mesurable et l’on réservera “incertitude” aux situations qui ne sont pasmesurables. » Si la vie sociale est incertaine au sens de Knight, alors l’État Providence ne pourrapas protéger le bien-être humain. Mais si les accidents sociaux peuvent être normalisés, au sensstatistique du terme, alors l’apparente fatalité peut être standardisée et domestiquée. On passede risques individuels imprévisibles à un risque social maîtrisable, parce que calculé et mutualisé.