Climate justice, social policy and the transition to net zero in the UK

If Not Now, Then When? Pathways to Embed Climate Change Within Social Policy

“…Mandelli, 2022) – for example, addressing inequality without worsening environmental issues and vice versa. This has been recognised throughout scholarship on social policy and the environment (Cahill, 2002; Huby, 1998; Snell and Thomson, 2013; Büchs et al, 2011; Gough et al ., 2008; Snell et al ., 2022; Mandelli, 2022; Hirvilammi, 2020) and remains true today, albeit with new challenges, for example, the global energy crisis.…”

“…This body of work has gathered both momentum and gained nuance. The concept of ‘sustainable welfare’ (see below) has gained significant traction, there has been a greater emphasis in most recent work of the significance of the (just) transition to a low carbon economy/net zero (Gough, 2022; Krause et al ., 2022; Snell et al ., 2022), and the integration of climate and environmental justice concepts with social policy literature has reframed and refreshed debates around social policy, inequality, and the environment (Bell, 2014; Snell et al, 2022; Snell, 2022; Urban and Nordensvärd, 2013; Nordensvärd, 2017; Williams, 2021, see also Middlemiss et al and Thomson et al within this themed section).…”

“…Significantly, there is virtually no recent social policy scholarship on the impact of climate change and climate policy on existing social and physical infrastructure, institutions, and processes, and (with the exception of Snell et al ., 2022; Büchs et al ., 2011; Urban and Nordensvärd, 2013; Nordensvard, 2017) limited applied work on the broader implications of the ‘transition to net zero’ for both societies and social policies. Moreover, the burgeoning ‘sustainable welfare’ literature has historically lacked application (Mandelli, 2022), and where it has been applied this is often limited to a limited number of policy areas – for example, housing, energy, or labour markets.…”

“…There has been a number of explicit attempts to make connections between social policy and environmental issues -led by a number of trailblazers such as Fitzpatrick (2003), Gough (2014aGough ( , 2014bGough ( , 2017, Gough et al (2008), Cahill (2002) and Huby (1998), and more recently Koch and Mont (2016), Hirvilammi and Koch (2020), Büchs and Koch (2017), Mandelli (2022), Snell and Haq (2014) and Snell et al (2022). Literature that exists within the discipline tends to focus on a number of core issues: the societal impact of environmental problems; resulting challenges posed for social policy and welfare systems; and an imagining of what a future, sustainable, social policy might look like and the policy instruments necessary to deliver this.…”

“…This body of work has gathered both momentum and gained nuance. The concept of 'sustainable welfare' (see below) has gained significant traction, there has been a greater emphasis in most recent work of the significance of the (just) transition to a low carbon economy/net zero (Gough, 2022;Krause et al, 2022;Snell et al, 2022), and the integration of climate and environmental justice concepts with social policy literature has reframed and refreshed debates around social policy, inequality, and the environment (Bell, 2014;Snell et al, 2022;Snell, 2022 Concerns are also raised over the threat that environmental problems pose to current systems and policy responsesfor example, social welfare systems (see, for example, Gough et al, 2008;Dean, 2019); although this literature is relatively limited within the discipline (even if more present in other fieldssee, for example, British Medical Association, 2023; Paterson et al, 2014).…”