Description
In 2023 the FRA launched a new project “Ensuring the right to environmental protection” to identify the most urgent social and fundamental rights dimensions of the EU’s green transition and relevant implementing legislation against the background of climate change and in light of the overarching principle of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda to leave no one behind. The outcome of this research provided evidence-based guidance to EU institutions and EU Member States (at different levels) to identify steps necessary to strengthen a just and fair transition and to better implement the green transition in a fundamental rights’ compliant manner.
The project consisted of a desk research component in 30 countries (see related page here) and fieldwork research in selected countries. Based on this fieldwork, the FRA published a report showing that fundamental rights are not systematically integrated into the legal and policy frameworks on the climate and energy at the EU or national levels. Whereas applicable laws and policies often explicitly refer to principles such as ‘leave no one behind’ and ‘just transition’, references and safeguards to human rights are often fragmented and superficial. Policies and implementing energy renovation programmes and projects rarely address fundamental rights risks or outline concrete safeguards to ensure that these principles are applied in practice. You can find the FRA report here, and our country research here.
