Climate justice: a common challenge taken up by the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the European Economic and Social Committee

Georges Dassis, EESC President and Patrick Bernasconi, President of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (ESEC)

With just a few weeks to go until the COP23 and the Paris Climate Summit, the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (ESEC) and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) have established a unique form of cooperation on climate justice issues, in order to use their two opinions to introduce this new concept into the discussions on climate policies.

The two institutions, which have been linked in a partnership agreement since 1 July 2017, have undertaken to cooperate on the implementation of their respective work programmes. The EESC has taken up the challenge of climate justice and has recently adopted an opinion on the subject, one year after the opinion issued on this topic in France.

The ESEC and the EESC recognise that it is the most vulnerable and the poorest sections of society that are often most affected by the impact of climate change, although they bear the least responsibility for the emissions which have led to the climate crisis. They are engaged in an important common initiative in encouraging the EU institutions and national governments to adopt climate justice measures at all levels: European, national and local.

The respective presidents of the ESEC and the EESC, Patrick Bernasconi and Georges Dassis, the chairs of the working groups and the rapporteurs agree on the high degree of complementarity and convergence in the two opinions, which map out concrete solutions at national and European level. The opinion will be presented at the COP23 in Bonn on 8 November.

The own-initiative ESEC opinion, drawn up by the Section for the Environment and adopted by the ESEC on 27 September 2016 by 152 votes to 15 with 15 abstentions, entitled Climate justice: Challenges and prospects for France, can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.lecese.fr/en/publications/climate-justice-challenges-and-propsects-france.

The own-initiative EESC opinion, drawn up by the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment and adopted by the EESC on 19 October 2017 by 194 votes to twelve with eight abstentions, can be accessed by clicking on the following link Climate Justice.

 

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