Regulation 2021/1056 - Just Transition Fund - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 231/1

The regulatory framework governing the Union’s cohesion policy for the period from 2021 to 2027, in the context of the next multiannual financial framework, contributes to the fulfilment of the Union’s commitments to implement the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (5) (the ‘Paris Agreement’), pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by concentrating Union funding on green objectives. This Regulation should implement one of the priorities set out in the Commission Communication of 11 December 2019 entitled ‘The European Green Deal’ and is part of the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan that provides dedicated financing under the Just Transition Mechanism in the context of cohesion policy to address the social, economic and environmental costs of the transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy, where any remaining greenhouse gas emissions are compensated by equivalent absorptions.

The transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy constitutes one of the most important policy objectives for the Union. On 12 December 2019 the European Council endorsed the objective of achieving a climate-neutral Union by 2050, in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. While fighting climate change and environmental degradation will benefit all in the long term and provides opportunities and challenges for all in the medium term, not all regions and Member States start their transition from the same point or have the same capacity to respond. Some are more advanced than others, and the transition entails a wider social, economic and environmental impact for those regions that rely heavily on fossil fuels for energy use - especially coal, lignite, peat and oil shale - or greenhouse gas intensive industries. Such a situation not only creates the risk of a variable speed transition in the Union as regards climate action, but also of growing disparities between regions, detrimental to the objectives of social, economic and territorial cohesion.

In order to be successful and socially acceptable for all, the transition has to be fair and inclusive. Therefore, the Union, Member States and their regions must take into account its social, economic and environmental implications from the outset, and deploy all possible instruments to mitigate adverse consequences. The Union budget has an important role in that regard.

As set out in the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan, a Just Transition Mechanism should complement the other actions under the next multiannual financial framework for the period from 2021 to 2027. It should contribute to addressing the social, economic and environmental consequences, in particular for workers affected in the process of transitioning towards a climate-neutral Union by 2050, by bringing together the Union budget’s spending on climate and social...