Environmental Democracy

This document is a copy of the survey used for the public consultation on the development of Ireland’s Social Climate Plan. It outlines EJNI’s response to the survey questions. For a full outline of EJNI’s position on what needs to be in Ireland’s Social Climate Plan, see our resource paper published earlier this year, Six Priorities for Ireland’s Social Climate Plan.

EJNI and Feminist Communities for Climate Justice response to the NI Fuel Poverty Consultation

The European Pillar of Social Rights is designed to act as the EU’s blueprint for a ‘fairer and more inclusive Europe that protects its citizens while contributing to better living and working conditions’.  The first Action Plan to turn the principles of the Pillar into concrete actions was produced in 2021. The European Commission is now consulting on a new...

The EU is currently developing its Civil Society Strategy. Our response explores public participation, administrative burdens and technical solutions to existing public participation deficits. It also highlights mechanisms through which enabling environments for meaningful public participation can be created, including: • Providing structured and regular opportunities to participate with information available at different levels for different audiences (lay and expert),...

This call for evidence seeks views on the UK’s compliance with the Aarhus Convention’s access-to-justice provisions (Article 9), focusing on three issues raised by the UN Aarhus Compliance Committee about Northern Ireland’s justice system: Costs protection – ensuring justice is not prohibitively expensive, covering the effectiveness of current regulations, appeals and cost caps, shared caps, cross-undertakings in damages, and costs...

The Social Climate Fund (SCF) is part of the European Union's Fit for 55 package and is the first fund dedicated to counterbalancing the negative socio-economic effects of the extension of the Emissions Trading System (ETS2) that will apply to the transport and heating & cooling sectors.1 Social Climate Plans (SCPs) outline how Member States will allocate SCF resources and...

EU Member States are required to prepare, consult upon, and submit a national Social Climate Plan (SCP) to the European Commission before June 30th, 2025. This briefing explains the public participation requirements for the production of Ireland’s SCP in detail.

In recent years Just Transition has been the subject of significant research and analysis and is increasingly enshrined in legal obligations at national and supranational level. It has been widely acknowledged that just transition policies and initiatives can deliver useful measures and on the ground action to address the social risks of industrial decarbonisation and make decarbonisation socially fair and...

The concept of a just transition has broadened from focusing mainly on protecting workers in high-emission industries to addressing the unequal impacts of climate policies on vulnerable and marginalized groups. Closely tied to ideas of climate justice and equity, it has legal relevance in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In Ireland, just transition principles are indirectly supported under section 3(3) of...

Ireland must submit a Social Climate Plan (SCP) to the European Commission by 30 June 2025, outlining how it will use EU Social Climate Fund (SCF) resources to address the social impacts of the new EU Emissions Trading System 2 (ETS2), which extends carbon pricing to buildings and road transport. Although Ireland has a derogation from ETS2 from 2027 to...