Conclusions and recommendations

Conference of the Civil Society Organisations' Group on 'Empowering consumers on climate change'

Brussels, 11 October 2023

On 11 October 2023, the Civil Society Organisations' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organised the conference 'Empowering Consumers on Climate Change'. The event constituted the first of the Green Dialogues launched by Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, with the aim of encouraging and strengthening public support for the EU Green Deal.

Seizing the opportunities of climate action

• Climate change currently constitutes the greatest existential challenge to the global human population. The implementation of the necessary adaptation and mitigation strategies will be costly and lengthy, with very significant socio-economic challenges;
• However, the climate crisis should also be perceived as an opportunity to engender a genuine paradigm shift in expectations, attitudes and behaviour among policy-makers, industry and consumers;
• To this end, the participants welcomed the announcement of Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, to engage in dialogues on the green transition with civil society organisations (CSOs), citizens and other key stakeholders;
• These dialogues are all the more relevant given that in the medium to long-term, a refusal to change practices and lifestyles will be considerably more costly for everyone;
• Moreover, public support for national and European action on climate mitigation is relatively high, with opposition often limited to specific projects. Support is nonetheless dependent on citizens being encouraged, permitted and empowered to engage in the green transition;
• In this context, EU and national policy-makers should mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation throughout all policies. Coherence between national and EU polices, as well as horizontal policy approaches, should be prioritised, notably among the sectors of agriculture, energy and health;
• Particular attention should also be paid to encouraging and nudging a critical mass of consumers to embrace more sustainable lifestyles based on the circular economy;
• Moreover, priority should be given to making available, affordable, attractive and convenient, alternative sustainable economic models, products, food and services, notably to lower and middle-income consumers;
• The green transition constitutes an opportunity for the EU to focus investments on zero emission industries and to become a global leader in clean technologies, at the same time as enhancing its geo-political strategic autonomy. In this context, it is imperative to ensure stable and long-term EU and national green policies, in order to encourage predictable high-levels of investments into new technologies;
• Ultimately, the EU's 'Fit for 55' package should be viewed as both a powerful instrument to enhance the EU's global soft power and as a stimulus for generational responsibility. Thus, stirring ambition and purpose among all European consumers and notably, the younger generations.

Mitigating the cost of the climate crisis on vulnerable groups and communities

• Without doubt, the commitment to 'leave nobody behind', must remain central to all policies and actions for climate adaptation/mitigation. It is essential that the green transition is just, equitable and fair for all sectors of society;
• This is even more important as the most vulnerable socio-economic groups and communities will be disproportionally negatively impacted by the climate crisis. Women, children, persons with disabilities, poor people, the urban poor, the unemployed, minorities and immigrants will be severely affected by climate change, unless radical immediate measures are taken at the local, national and European levels;
• Moreover, according to an EESC commissioned study[1], climate change will result in decreases in labour income and in increases in climate-induced expenditure, in nearly all EU Member States;
• Sub-national regions within the EU will face differentiated effects, with poor households and families in Southern Europe being the most negatively impacted. The latter will be obliged to spend more on health, electricity and food, whilst the overall percentage of the European population at risk of poverty will increase in almost all Member States;
• The risks of neglect of the most vulnerable socio-economic groups, of unmanageable social inequalities and of the progressive abandonment of public spaces due to extreme weather conditions, are very real and could even lead to undermining the fundamental rights of these groups of the population;
• Within this context, it is necessary to create resilient communities and urban areas, with prepared and results-oriented civil protection systems, as well as affordable, accessible and effective public services;  
• It is also imperative that Member States and the EU develop tailored and long-term approaches to different sectors of the population, with sufficient and targeted funding;
• The decision to allocate €86 billion to the EU Social Climate Fund from 2026 is very welcome. Additional financing through the EU Climate Adjustment Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, should also be directed towards mitigating the negative impacts of the climate crisis, notably on the most vulnerable;
• Particular attention should also be paid to farmers, who as custodians of food production, have an essential role to play in maintaining the balance between the sustainable production of good quality food and food security. Farmers also face the challenges of rapid modernisation of the agricultural sector, decreasing water security and limited interest of young persons in working in the agricultural sector;
• To help overcome some of these challenges, it is essential that farmers are assisted through the setting of fair pricing, incentives, greater clarity on how to implement the EU Green Deal and more investments into agricultural research.

Placing consumers at the heart of sustainable action against climate change

• It will not be possible to adapt to and mitigate climate change without the active support and direct involvement of CSOs and a critical mass of individual consumers;
• Policy-makers must comprehend that the necessary transitions will only occur if individual consumers and CSOs are encouraged, permitted and empowered to engage in the transition;
• CSOs in particular, must be involved in designing, implementing and monitoring sustainable structural solutions. They have a pivotal role to play working together with local communities, local/regional/national authorities, as well as with European policy-makers, to jointly identify and implement bottom-up approaches which respect people and the democratic principles of participation and partnership;
• Individual consumers and communities can take on the role of prosumers, investing in carbon-free technologies and becoming producers of electricity. To this end, conducive regulatory and financial frameworks should be introduced at the national level, accompanied by information campaigns for consumers;
• However, to improve public acceptance, policy-makers should stive to change behaviour through incentives, rather than coercion. For example, existing consumer legislation should be updated, in order to protect consumers and to incite them to actively participate in the circular, green economy;
• Similarly, the EC package of proposals on common rules to repair goods is a very welcome step forward. However, although clearer labelling on the durability and repairability of products and commercial guarantees are necessary, nonetheless, not all responsibility can be placed on informed consumers;
• EU legislation also needs to ban obsolescence, intentional serialisations and misleading environmental claims (greenwashing).

Brussels, 23 October 2023

[1] 'The Cost of Climate Change on Households and Families in the EU', 2023, ISBN: 978-92-830-6221-9