Just green transition · Conference statement
Policy Recommendations and Remarks to the European Union and the Government of Hungary
Priority area comments and suggestions for a fair green transition.
JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY
Environmental justice and increased compliance with the Aarhus Convention
The Roma population mostly live in floodplains, former mining and industrial areas, outside administrative boundaries, often in areas that may have a low value or are polluted, difficult to access by public transport or near landfills, on agricultural land, near railways, without proper infrastructure, often without sewage and piped water, and no asphalt roads.
This affects the quality of life for generations, making adaptation impossible.
The European Union and governments should support the elimination of environmental inequalities and risks for the Roma population, not only on the basis of inclusion or social welfare, but also focusing on human rights, the right to a healthy environment and the provisions of Act LXXXI of 2001, which, in addition to the Aarhus Convention adopted in 1998, has also served as the basis for many other international environmental conventions, including the European Charter on Environment and Health.
The European Commission and the EU Parliament Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, should take action to ensure that the European community recognises European Roma population as vulnerable frontline communities exposed to the worst impacts of climate change and crisis.
The European Commission should provide resources to NGOs and grassroots organisations to raise awareness of long-standing environmental inequalities, often caused by economic changes over the last 30 years, and to help address inequalities caused by systemic problems.
Environmental racism must be more effectively highlighted. As a result of unequal power relations between opposing stakeholders, systemic oppression and discriminatory practices, environmental and health risks are prevalent in the homes and workplaces of disadvantaged and Roma communities. Both NGOs and government actors must do away with the current perception and approach of victim blaming. In the texts of the National Social Inclusion Strategy, among others, but also in most governmental and sometimes civil society documents on measures to combat the climate crisis, as well as in media communications and reports, the non- environmentally conscious behaviour of Roma and disadvantaged people is seen as a problem, for example in relation to landfills and increased air pollution during the heating season. These interpretations ignore and disregard data that demonstrates that the conditions of Roma neighbourhoods and households can be traced back to environmental racism or often to historical and exclusionary settlement planning and other exclusionary practices. Scapegoat politics is not the basis for shaping attitudes; instead, honest narratives that reveal the real causes must be made public, and information and knowledge must be made available.
We demand support for participatory research, publications, workshops, and training sessions on environmental justice. Decision makers should make it possible to collect and analyse data on climate and environmental health risks in inhabited areas and segregated areas (e.g. water, soil, air), with the involvement of the population concerned and their representatives, for monitoring purposes. They should support the development of databases and mapping indicating the proximity and types of polluting activities and emitters, as well as relevant infrastructure and energy sources.
The Hungarian government should start without delay the rehabilitation and development of Roma families and communities displaced by economic and investor interests, investments, industrial disasters, pollution, climate impacts (mudflows, floods, air pollution, landfills, etc.), dealing with their unfit housing conditions, poor health, and risk environment. (e.g. Recsk, Lyukó-bánya communities)
We call on the government to eliminate polluting and harmful environmental factors in the vicinity of people, to stop the overlapping and superimposition of residential, industrial, and agricultural areas!
Decision makers should provide collective insurance to communities and municipalities against environmental and climate disasters and damage caused by industrial and agricultural activities. They should put a governmental, state guarantee behind such insurance schemes, especially for investments in the national interest and in cases identified as environmentally and health risky.
Permit procedures and associated regulations for installations posing environmental and health risks should be reviewed and changes made. For example, the conditions should be tightened up, i.e. not only the noise impact should be covered, but also the distance from residential dwellings of industrial and agricultural units under permit procedures should be revisited.
Land reclassification should be accompanied by a broader consultation process, involving the public, independent experts, and public authority hearings.
Economic development should not go against or override human rights and fundamental rights to health and a healthy environment. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency’s contracts with polluters should not protect the economic interests of those polluters and operators that are hazardous and harmful to the environment and human health.
The government should take strong action against environmental damage, toughen sanctions and review contracts under Government Decree 432/2023 (21.IX.2023) from the point of view of protecting fundamental rights. The lack of dissuasive sanctions and the introduction of procedures and ‘standards’ that differ from European guidelines make it more difficult for those who protect the environment and the communities affected to do their work, reducing their effectiveness, and further damaging the interests and rights of the population.
Courts should respect fundamental rights and not make decisions based on economic interests where this infringes fundamental rights. Courts, judges, legal experts, and forensic damage experts should also be aware of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention (“Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters”) and thus contribute to more effective institutions and mechanisms for prevention, justice, compensation, and reparation.
In the context of environmental objectives, local authorities should allocate resources to building mechanisms that promote the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention and the right to public information and education programmes.
The EU Commission should address funds for those who protect the environmental rule of law and advocate for environmental democracy. We demand EU funding for legal aid, litigation and legal process analysis, development, training and advocacy for civil society and human rights organisations working in this field.
EQUITY AND EQUALITY, HUMAN RIGHTS - “LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND”
Access to water is a human right, a minimum level of social protection, a necessity!
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 6 and Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights of the European Union set out the general principles of the right to water. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted its general comment No. 15 on the right to water stating that: “The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.” Hungary’s piped water network has a coverage rate of over 90%, but in all regions, non- urban settlements are far below this coverage rate and most poor households are excluded. In particular, Roma households are severely affected by water poverty. They lack access to safe and affordable drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities. One in three Roma live in a dwelling without tap water, and only just over half have an indoor flush toilet or shower. It is common for municipalities to block public water points during the hottest periods, denying the population basic drinking water services.
The European Economic and Social Committee sets out its conclusions and recommendations on addressing water poverty and its social policy implications in 16 points.
The state (here e.g. local government, municipalities) should bear in mind that it has a role in financing and organising equal access to water. Market-based water management should not be an obstacle to human rights-based water access.
Eradicating poverty, reducing energy poverty, affordable housing
A just transition requires not only social solidarity on the part of the better-off social groups, but also the establishment of specific supportive instruments and the introduction of the principle of equity in practice in as many forms as possible at the level of poor households.
We recommend including statements on what percentage of the costs of the green transition will be used for equity purposes and to build the resilience and adaptation of disadvantaged populations and the civil sector. It is also very important to assess the impact of these measures.
Governments and the European Union should increase their spending on promoting resilience and ensure that market actors also should contribute to resilience funds.
Communities and municipalities should have direct access to dedicated EU funding for resilience and adaptation.
We should make eradicating child poverty and hunger a priority. This must be pursued in every possible way. The national government and local governments should develop a strategy and allocate resources to the targeted eradication of hunger and poverty, including by supporting the implementation of the related UN Development Goals at the municipal level with on-demand resources.
The principle of social justice should prevail in the provision of food to poor households, instead of a focus on profit maximisation. The government, especially in deprived settlements, should promote the affordability and accessibility of healthy and sustainable food for the population.
We should promote the development of short and ultra-short food chains in deprived areas. The organisers of public kitchens, social and catering services should also adhere to the principles of sustainability and use locally and regionally accessible supply chains to source healthy and nutritious food and ingredients.
In poor and energy-poor households, or households with in-work poverty, it is not enough to adopt a social welfare approach. Efforts should be made to provide equitable and active support tools to eliminate or significantly reduce financial burdens and minimise the difficulties and disadvantages of the environmental transition, ultimately reducing the proportion of the population at high risk.
Steps should be taken to ensure transparent use of adaptation instruments such as the European Social Climate Fund and to ensure that governments’ mandatory contributions are accounted and monitored.
The European Commission should request national impact assessments based on the collection of pre-defined data to measure the changes generated by environmental interventions and measures and demand a comprehensive report from the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Economy - Sustainable Development, and those decision makers in charge of managing the Social Climate Fund, at least twice during the 2026-2032 cycle of the Fund. The EC should make this a mandatory element of the Social Climate Plan to be prepared in 2025.
The European Commission should fund reporting through NGOs, independently of government, and establish a complaints mechanism that can be directly accessed by civil society.
Green transition, adaptation and resilience should be supported by improving housing conditions and energy efficiency of buildings, while reducing energy expenditure and increasing incomes. The basic tools for this, the cancellation of utility debts and the provision of a basic income to support the green transition (which can be phased out over time), should be implemented by the government from the first year of the implementation of the social climate plan.
The use of the Social Climate Fund should promote the creation of energy communities, enabling direct access to the Fund’s resources for energy communities and NGOs and cooperatives based on citizens’ cooperation. In disadvantaged areas and generally in non-urban settlements, support should be given to initiatives based on community and local collective action, local skills and local entrepreneurs and labour.
Local people should be involved in planning and deciding on targets and implementation in the areas of energy efficiency and transport (this is not a substitute for social consultation and for input gathering during the planning process).
In addition to the mandatory 25% contribution to the Social Climate Fund, the government should provide additional resources, dedicated funds to develop and maintain the adaptation of families living below the subsistence level beyond 2032.
The government should extend its resources and programmes for “catching up” programs (e.g. MNTFS, EFOP, TOP+) to include energy poverty reduction and building resilience, especially for households whose conditions may not meet the conditions set out in the Social Climate Plan 2025 (i.e., do not include the costs of catching- up in the 25% mandatory-financing).
The government should take active steps to ensure that energy-poor households and households with no electricity at all have access to renewable energy sources with public support.
To further alleviate the housing crisis, efforts should be made to regularise property ownership and cancel debts that have been outstanding for more than one year, including utility, bank, and bailiff claims (not only in FETE municipalities). These claims are often disproportionate, illegal, or abusive practices and abuses typically affect families with weak advocacy power. They create an unresolvable debt trap, prevent legal income generation, and deprive families already living in poverty of additional services and benefits.
GREENING THE ECONOMY - PARTICIPATION, COMPETITIVENESS IN A CHANGING LABOUR MARKET
The OECD Economics Department’s 2024 public debate ” Lost in the green transition? Measurement and stylized facts”, the working paper of the report states that the loss of economic activity and jobs to accelerate decarbonisation will mostly affect low-skilled and rural populations, as polluting or more environmentally damaging sectors are concentrated there, while green jobs require higher skills that are not available in these populations.
Roma people are typically employed in jobs in sectors undergoing major restructuring, e.g. waste management, construction, meat industry, non-green farms, seasonal field work.
The government should take note of the fact that the Roma labour force is mostly hired without proper legal protection and official employee contracts, and that trade unions do not protect or recognise their rights as workers. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by the lack of health and social security that results from these unofficial contracts, so that Roma workers often face the prospect of not having pension rights despite years of service. Most workers displaced during the green transition are thus invisible and are excluded from inclusion measures, from training and retraining programmes designed to minimise the negative effects of the transition.
In the light of the above, the government should develop targeted policies to ensure that the labour market transition to the green economy does not cause the same severe employment problems for Roma in the already weak labour market situation as they experienced during the political regime change.
The catch-up approach is counterproductive or insufficient to achieve competitiveness. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring young people’s resilience and adaptability.
The government should generate interest in vocational education and training institutions to train the skilled workforce needed for the green transition and the clean, circular economy. They should promote the inclusion of the Roma population in training, using a system of scholarships and other incentives, and provide subsidised jobs (instead of including Roma in obsolete professions).
The consequences of lowering the compulsory school age to 16 have further undermined the adaptability of the young adult population and the chances of equality16 . Early school leaving has increased, but these young people have not entered the labour market. The government should pay particular attention to the working- age young population not in education or training, and return them to the education system, through complex programmes to help them learn skills that are marketable in the circular economy and to support their livelihoods and entrepreneurship during training.
AN ECONOMY THAT SUPPORTS GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Governments should create the conditions for the development of economic democracy and a welfare economy through taxation and other incentives, and by encouraging the creation of jobs and businesses that use fewer resources, contribute to social equality, and provide women and young people with a decent living in safe and healthy conditions.
The government should take action to tackle women’s inequalities in the labour market and income, for example by socially and economically valuing care work and unpaid work. Roma women perform reproductive work under particularly stressful conditions and bad housing conditions. This is often a barrier to employment, so that in the absence of paid work their vulnerability increases, and their poverty and financial dependence affect their children and their own security in old age.
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