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Nordic Toolbox for a Just Green Transition

This is how policymakers can assess and mitigate social and regional impacts

Draw inspiration from real-life examples of countries and regions that have developed new approaches to assess the impacts of green transition policies. We also highlight interesting tools that can help to assess the social and employment impacts of policies and initiatives. 

EXAMPLE: Gender impact assessment of Finland’s climate and energy strategy

Location

Finland 

Description

In 2021, the Finnish government invited a research group consisting of Oxford Research, Equality Research Helsinki and Gaia Consulting to conduct a gender impact assessment of the climate and energy strategy, which was under development at that time. The researchers examined the gender impacts of 101 policy measures proposed in six sectors: energy production, construction and buildings, transport, industry, the service sector and agriculture.

Outcome

The researchers concluded that the policy measures mainly affect male-dominated sectors, but female-dominated service sectors may suffer from negative employment impacts as well. They recommended increasing the number of women educated in male-overrepresented sectors related to the green transition to counteract occupational gender segregation. An additional recommendation was to include more women in climate policy. 

Read more

Information on the Gender impact of the upcoming Climate and Energy Strategy assessed on the Finnish Government's website.
The gender impact assessment of the climate and energy strategy is available here (in Finnish) from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (PDF).

 EXAMPLE: EU Youth Check

Location

European Union

Description

In January 2024, the European Commission committed itself to implementing a Youth Check (also referred to as a Youth Test) when designing new policies and laws.
The Youth Check ensures that the impact on young people of any legislative proposal within the European Union is assessed. It also requires EU legislative bodies to involve young stakeholders and consult with them, as well as to identify mitigation measures which may help to avoid or reduce negative impacts. 

Outcome

This is a very recent initiative; no impacts have been described yet. 

Read more

A press release about the EU Youth Check is available on the European Commissions website.

EXAMPLE: Well-being of Future Generations Act

Location

Wales 

Description 

The Well-being of Future Generations Act was adopted in April 2015. It is based on a series of national consultations and conversations with citizens, communities and organisations from across Wales.
The Act makes sustainable development the central organising principle of policymaking in Wales. It requires that public bodies
1) consider long-term impacts,
2) help to prevent challenges occurring or getting worse,
3) take a holistic and collaborative approach, and
4) consider and involve people of all ages.
Through that approach, the Act is intended to lead to achievement of seven well-being goals for the country. While not explicitly focusing on the green transition, this Act is an example of how to give legal status to the goal of considering long-term policy impacts, as well as impacts across social groups.

Outcome

According to the Welsh government, positive changes from the Act are already noticeable. Among other steps, the Welsh government reduced the voting age to 16 years to give young people more political influence. The government also established a Transformation Fund, intended to fund new models of health and social care. A dedicated position – the Commissioner for Future Generations – was created to assess how public bodies are progressing towards the goals of the Act and to publish recommendations.

Read more

About the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 on the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales' website.

TOOL: How to conduct a disability impact assessment 

Author or publisher

Department of Justice and Equality, Government of Ireland 

Year of publication

2012 

Description

This document provides guidelines on how to conduct a disability impact assessment of planned policies and laws. It is directed at departments of the Irish government, but may also provide ideas and information in a Nordic context. The document provides arguments as to why disability impact assessments are important and offers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct such an assessment. 

Read more

Download the publication "How to Conduct a Disability Impact Assessment" (click to download PDF).

TOOL: How to consider equality in policymaking: A 10-step guide for public bodies in England 

Author or Publisher

Equality and Human Rights Commission, United Kingdom

Year of publication 

2024 

Description

This guide offers practical guidance on how to systematically consider the equality impacts of policies and use that information in policy design. The tool lays out ten steps for conducting an equality assessment, each containing tips and reminders on how to proceed. While written for public authorities in England, some of the steps and approaches described in this tool may be useful for authorities in the Nordic countries as well.

Read more

The guide How to consider equality in policy making: A 10-step guide for public bodies in England is available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website.

TOOL: Just transition measurement approaches

Author or Publisher

European Commission

Year of publication 

2023 

Description

This publication offers sets of potential indicators that can be used to measure the impact of green transition initiatives. Primarily developed for policymakers who are working on implementation of the Just Transition Plans in EU Member States, many of the indicators may be used for other initiatives and contexts as well. The authors also refer to good practices from various EU Member States and describe indicator sets that are used outside the EU, for example in the US context. Those may also offer ideas for Nordic policymakers on how to measure progress and the impact of green transition policies.

Read more

The publication "Just transition measurement approaches" by the European Commission (PDF).

TOOL: Gender Impact Assessment

Author or Publisher

European Institute for Gender Equality  

Year of publication 

2017 

Description

This tool offers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct a Gender Impact Assessment. It also provides information on who should use a Gender Impact Assessment, why and when. Good practices from European countries at different levels of governance are highlighted, including examples from Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Read more

The Gender Impact Assessment guidelines are available on the European Institute for Gender Equality's website.

TOOL: Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) and Child Rights Impact Evaluation (CRIE)

Author or Publisher

European Network of Ombudspersons for Children

Year of publication 

2020  

Description

Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) examines the potential impacts of laws, policies, programmes and services on children and young people during the development phase and helps to avoid or mitigate negative impacts.
Child Rights Impact Evaluation (CRIE) is a tool to evaluate the intended or unintended effect of laws, policies and decisions on children and young people after these have been adopted. CRIE can also help to identify steps that should be taken to mitigate such impacts.

Read more

Templates, as well as a synthesis report, are available on the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children's website.

TOOL: How to measure and model social and employment outcomes of climate and sustainable development policies. GAIN training guidebook

Author or Publisher

International Labour Organization (ILO)

Year of publication 

2017 

Description

This guidebook contains four modules which can help to analyse the impact of climate policies on jobs and income distribution and to project green employment, based on national accounts and data. The modules include input-output models and social accounting matrices.

Read more

TOOL: Reference guide for Employment Impact Assessment (EIA) 

Author or Publisher

International Labour Organization (ILO)  

Year of publication 

2020 

Description

This report may be a good starting point for Nordic policymakers aiming to gain an overview of the options that are available in the field of Employment Impact Assessment. It provides a comprehensive overview of different methods and approaches that can be used to assess the employment impact of policies, investments or other interventions. It describes the objectives, pros and cons of each method and elaborates on the type of questions each method can help to answer.

Read more

The Reference guide for Employment Impact Assessment can be downloaded on ILO's website.

TOOL: Integrating climate and environment, gender equality (including accessibility), and children’s rights and youth perspectives

Author or Publisher

Nordic Council of Ministers 

Year of publication 

2024 

Description

This impact assessment tool helps to identify potential positive and negative effects of a particular activity on 1) the environment and climate, 2) equality and accessibility and 3) children and young people. The tool is based on a series of questions that shall ideally be discussed in a team to spark discussion and provide new insights that can be used to refine a planned activity.

Read more

The rights-based analysis related to children and young people in the Nordic Council of Ministers can help users to analyse how a planned activity affects children and young people.
Both tools may be used in conjunction.

TOOL: Intergenerational fairness policy assessment toolkit 

Author or Publisher

School of International Futures (Kent, UK)

Year of publication 

2020

Description

In collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the School of International Futures has developed a tool which can be used to assess the intergenerational fairness of policies. It consists of five stages, each with specific steps, including diagnostics, scenarios, process and a conclusion. Policies are considered fair according to the toolkit if they allow people of all ages to meet their needs and if they meet the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
The framework was created for Portuguese and British contexts, but can, according to the authors, be used by other national or local governments, as well as other actors and stakeholders. It can be applied to any type of policy or strategic decision, both in the planning (ex-ante) and evaluation (ex-post) phases.

Read more

Intergenerational Fairness Policy Assessment Toolkit is available of School of International Futures' website.

TOOL: Just Transition Score

Author or Publisher

Social Progress Imperative 

Year of publication 

Latest release: 2021-2022 

Description

The Just Transition Score is calculated by dividing carbon emissions per capita by the Social Progress Index of a country. The score thereby provides an overall impression of how effective countries are at combining climate mitigation with delivering social progress for the population. The score is based on 69 indicators and has been calculated for 161 countries.  

Read more

More information on the Just Transition Score, the methodology behind it and the most recent country results is available on Social Progress Imperative's website.

TOOL: SDG Synergies

Author or Publisher

Stockholm Environment Institute  

Year of publication 

2020  

Description

The SDG Synergies tool helps policymakers and other actors map and analyse how different policies and measures interact, helping to unlock synergies and identify possible goal conflicts. The tool was originally developed to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the authors state that it can be applied to many other policy areas within the field of sustainability and beyond. It is based on a discussion-based scoring process that helps to highlight how different goals and targets interact and create trade-offs. This tool may be useful to map and discuss possible goal conflicts of green transition policies in the Nordic context. 

Read more

A user manual for SDG Synergies Tool by SEI (PDF).
Access to the SDG Synergies tool on SEI's website (registration required).
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