Is the Just Transition Fund enough? A Housing Perspective on Leaving No One Behind
On 9th June, FEANTSA, the Fondation Abbé Pierre & Housing Europe held an online roundtable e-hosted by Mounir Satouri MEP (EFA/Greens, EMPL rapporteur on the Just Transition Fund). The aim of the event was to discuss how can the Green Deal, and particularly the new Just Transition Fund, generate real social impact and reach people living in poor housing conditions?
The Just Transition fund is a decisive opportunity to address the situation of inadequate housing and energy poverty. FEANTSA argues that the Just Transition Fund must deliberately be shaped to support lowincome and vulnerable households in the climate transition, through support services and direct investment in housing retrofitting for energy efficiency. The climate emergency also imposes housing to be a central element of the green transition as existing buildings and housing stock make up about 35% of CO2 emissions in the EU. But for the “green recovery” to truly leave no one behind, and be a "socially sustainable transition" it will require explicitly recognizing and addressing the social risks constituted by the green transition, particularly in the context of housing.
For the Just Transition Fund (JTF) to truly be an instrument for a just climate transition and advance both energy transition and the right to adequate housing, it needs to address three inter-related challenges in an integrated way:
1. Poor housing conditions: 4% of the EU population live in severe housing deprivation, rising to 9 % for the first income quintile.
2. Energy poverty: 7.3 % of EU households are unable to keep their house adequately warm, rising to 17.9% for households living in poverty
3. Energy inefficient buildings stock: 75% of the EU’s existing
To remain efficient, the JTF must be targeted, not exclusively towards training and employment opportunities but also towards the eradication of extreme forms of poverty through investment in adequate housing for low-income and vulnerable groups.
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Presentation from Katarzyna Przybylska, Habitat for Humanity on the housing situation in Poland
Presentation of Louise Sunderland from the Regulatory Assistance project: Equity in the energy transition
You missed the debate? Watch it here!