Social Policy in the Eye of Climate Emergency

This blog is based on an article in the Journal of Social Policy by Tuuli Hirvilammi, Liisa Häikö, Håkan Johansson, Max Koch and Johanna Perkiö. Click here to access the article.

Temperatures across the world are breaking record levels, devastating floods are risking lives in India, the US, and China, and millions of hectares of forest are burnt down in Canada and Southern Europe. This is the climate emergency that has been warned for decades. This is the context that constitutes a new structural condition for welfare states. The climate emergency needs to be better integrated into social policy research, as we argue in our article. We show how integration can be improved with an ecosocial research agenda based on new climate-adjusted understandings of social risks, citizenship, welfare regimes, and wellbeing. We realize that social policy scholars have a lot to offer.

Recent years have brought a rise in social policy scholars interested in sustainable welfare and ecosocial policies. As a Finnish social policy student 20 years ago, I was surprised that the discussion on the future and risks of welfare states was ignoring the global ecological crisis and studies on climate change. It was poorly understood how social policies could create synergies between social and environmental goals, address new inequalities, and help build public support for climate actions.

In 2012, I co-authored a book Social Policy in a Finite Planet, where we outlined a vision of sustainable well-being and called for new ecosocial policies. At the time, we were often asked why social policy scholars and practitioners should consider climate issues when being occupied with social security or the development of social- and health services.

Today, social policy experts know better and recognize that social and ecological issues are intertwined and that climate change is changing welfare states. The question is now how to advance ecosocial policies in research and practice.

In our article, we suggest that social policy researchers should study the ecologically problematic aspects of welfare states and the potentially important roles that welfare systems can play in sustainability transformation.

Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to increase. These create new ecosocial risks that social policy scholars cannot ignore. More empirical research is needed to provide in-depth knowledge for policy-makers on these new inequalities that materialize both because of climate change impacts and as a consequence of green transition policies. Social policy scholars who are experts in social security and insurance systems could take an active role in designing integrative policy solutions to tackle these risks.

Sustainability transformation requires broad action and regulatory states. The responsibilities between individuals and public actors are in transition and the old social contract is challenged. Here, citizenship studies could provide a much-needed, general understanding of how relevant responsibilities and rights can be shared between individuals and states. The climate emergency calls for a broadened, noncontractual, and nonterritorial way of understanding citizenship. But how to define an accurate balance between the rights and duties of citizens in relation to states, the global community, future generations, and the rights of other species? More research is needed to inform public debate on this topical question.

In the climate emergency context, one of the most important challenges is to make welfare states independent of environmentally harmful economic growth. While GDP growth is an important precondition for maintaining current forms of welfare provision, it is also strongly linked to GHG emissions. It is thus problematic that existing welfare regimes are founded on the premise of economic growth, high levels of employment, and material welfare. An ecosocial research agenda takes limits on economic growth seriously. It studies the complex growth dependencies of existing welfare institutions and develops policy pathways for decoupling wellbeing outcomes and economic growth.

Social policy scholars are often experts in understanding the dynamics between economic and social impacts but should also consider environmental impacts in their analysis. Future studies may explore how different welfare regimes are responding to the climate emergency and where the potential is to facilitate transformation. Recently, many new ecosocial policy solutions have been suggested, including universal basic services, working time reduction, and green vouchers. Further development of these ideas could be on the agenda of social policy researchers.

The questions of what constitutes a good life, how to promote well-being and which factors threaten well-being have been central concerns for social policy scholars. These are also the questions that climate emergency touches on. This context makes it evident that the goal of increasing wellbeing in the short term within national borders endangers the very foundation of wellbeing globally and over the longer term. Future well-being is at risk.

Social policy scholars shouldstudy how human needs may be satisfied in a more sustainable manner and in the context of decreasing emissions. Social policy research on poverty and decent living standards could inform how a socially and ecologically sustainable standard of living may be achieved for all. The ecosocial research agenda puts forward broader notions of wellbeing by considering the relationship between humans and nature and the multiple dimensions of needs satisfaction. Human well-being should not be approached without understanding how it relates to our need for healthy ecosystems.

In short, the age of climate emergency challenges traditional notions in many ways. Existing theories and research on risks, citizenship, welfare regimes and well-being have been beneficial for developing social policies during the age of industrialization. Now they require thorough review and substantial revision to capture the context and conditions that influence social policies in the climate emergency age.