THE PROBLEM 

While environmental and climate action and social justice are two sides of the same coin, if policies for them are not planned and implemented in a coherent and inclusive manner, the European green transition can lead to environmentally and socially harmful impacts in the Global South. For example, Global South countries will need to adapt to new European standards developed in the framework of the European Green Deal and cope with negative spillover effects of the European production and consumption patterns. 

If not done with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, the burden of greening the EU economy will fall on the shoulders of Global South countries, the most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis and also the least responsible for it. 

THE PROCESS 

This is why since 2022, SOLIDAR has been working with its members and partners to build a vision for a just transition from the perspective of Global South’s civil society organisations, including trade unions, indigenous rights defenders, and feminist collectives.  

Throughout 2023, we have conducted a series of workshops together with our partners from Asia, Africa and Latin America, titled “Just Transition for All”. The objective of these workshops was to collect their views and reach a common definition of what Just Transition means from a Global South perspective. 

The outcome of this process is the campaign “Global Just Transition: Not just for (E)U”, a joint action of Solidar Suisse, Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL), Olof Palmes International Center (OPIC), FOS, and SOLIDAR, together with their partners based in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through their different testimonies, illustrated with case studies, we will show the negative consequences that this lack of an external dimension has on partner countries. 

OUR CALL TO ACTION 

With pivotal political changes on the horizon, SOLIDAR wants to see a Europe that continues to lead the transition, an incoming Parliament and Commission that build on what has been achieved but that go further.  For these upcoming elections, we:  

• Call on the EU to adopt a Global Just Transition approach in its relations with Global South countries, to ensure policy coherence, and accelerate the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement objectives, while incentivizing partner countries to move in this direction instead of hindering them. 

• Advocate for a Global Green Deal in line with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, meaning a Green Deal with an external dimension to guarantee a fair distribution of the cost of the transition between Europe and partner countries. 

In the XVII century, the poet John Donne recited “No man is an island/Entire of itself/Every man is a piece of the continent/A part of the main.” 

In 2024, we are conveying the same to the EU: we don’t live on an island, but rather, we are part of the main. Just as environmental and social challenges know no borders, neither should the solutions to address them.

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