Societal transition for a sustainable economy

The perils from catastrophic climate events and social instability due to growing inequality are at the top of the international political agenda as global threats in both developed and developing countries. A wide range of policies and strategies, under the aegis of “green growth”, have been proposed to boost renewable energy and technological progress toward a low-carbon transition. However, the effects of these measures on labor market and income inequality are often underestimated. To fill this gap, our team developed a dynamic macrosimulation model, at the country-scale (for France and Italy), to evaluate the short- and long-run aftermaths from alternative scenarios. We compare the green growth scenario with other policy-mixes that include radical social policies, such as a job guarantee plan and working time reduction. The aim is to explore the viability, effectiveness, and possible synergies and trade-offs among the current policy options to ensure a socially just and planned low-carbon transition. Our results, for both the French and Italian cases, suggest that coping environmental policies with radical social policies can achieve significant emissions reductions and improvements in social equity without compromising public balance.