Special Issue:
The European Green Deal and democracy
The European Union’s European Green Deal (EGD) was announced as an ambitious endeavour to achieve a just transition, address climate change, biodiversity loss and more. Importantly, it expresses the desire to tackle these challenges in a democratic way. Indeed, the scale of the changes required to meet the EGD’s goals mean that without democratic consent it is likely to fail, with disastrous consequences. With this introduction to the Special Issue on the European Green Deal and democracy we sketch the contours of this wide-ranging debate through a focus on aspects of democracy that are central to the EU and the EGD: representation, participation and deliberation, justice and the just transition, and expertise. The different contributions to this Special Issue examine democratic elements in the EGD and surrounding governance structures by exploring alternative sources of democratic innovation, including deliberative mechanisms and social movements, as potential avenues for transformative change.
In this issue: 11 Research Articles
- Democracy and the European Green Deal by Aron Buzogany, Louisa Parks, & Diarmuid Torney
- The European Green Deal and the democratic imagination by Amanda Machin
- Unpacking democratic participation in the European Green Deal: the case of Climate Pact by Feyyaz Barış Çelik
- Communities and the European Green Deal: opening 'sites of struggle' for a democratic energy transition by Emily K. Gray & Rachel McArdle
- Is it all about distribution? Debating the Green Deal in the European Parliament by Jan Pollex
- Investigating the politics of democratic legitimacy in EU climate policymaking: the special case of Fit for 55 by Jeff Rosamond & Claire Dupont
- Public participation in EU climate governance: the underexploited potential of national energy and climate plans by Sebastian Oberthür, Ingmar von Homeyer, Lea Schewe, & Brendan Moore
- Democracy and the implementation of the European Green Deal: comparing Denmark and Sweden by Karin Bäckstrand
- How the climate movement shaped the EU: protest cycles and democratic spaces in the European Green Deal by Louisa Parks
- Children and young people's assemblies against the backdrop of the European Green Deal: opportunities for consolidating and extending a sustainable and democratic transition by Benjamin Mallon, Valery Molay, Katie Reid, Clodagh Harris, & Diarmuid Torney
- Four pathways for energy citizenship initiatives to contribute to a more democratic European energy system by Benjamin Schmid, Ariane Debourdeau, Frances Fahy, Rene Kemp, Luisa Losada Puente, Marianna Markantoni, Karin Thalberg, & Edina Vadovics