The European transition to a net-zero economy by 2050 implies a wide range of changes which may adversely affect certain industrial sectors, communities, and regions. However, these impacts are entirely obscured by conventional least-cost analyses. Thus, this work compares the socio-economic impacts of various strategies to decarbonize the energy system by 2050 within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We demonstrate that transitions which protect domestic strategic assets and preserve key industrial sectors correspondingly deliver a socially equitable transition. Adopting a technology agnostic approach to decarbonising the European electricity system maximises the associated co-benefits, and potentially increases gross value added (GVA) to the economy by 50% relative to a business as usual scenario. This new way of thinking about the economic transition fundamentally reframes the discussion from one cost to one of opportunity.The transformations needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement require unprecedented rates of decarbonization, along with the interconnected technical, economic, social, and political changes that they entail 1-3 . This places unprecedented demands on national and sub-national political systems, and the social feasibility of such transformations is often questioned 4,5 Over the last decades, principles of equity and justice have been shaping the debates around sustainable development and emission mitigation, especially in relation to the distribution of responsibilities and rights among nations [6][7][8][9] . The explicit recognition of equity as one of the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has placed the concept of justice at the heart of negotiation leading to the 2015 agreement. Notions of equity are embedded in the Paris Agreement itself, which acknowledges the need for the transition to a low carbon society to be both fast and fair. More specifically, the Agreement states the need to account for "the imperative of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities" 10 .The European Union has a history of pro-active environmental and energy policy, delivered via a range of initiatives. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty identified environmental protection as a key goal, alongside stable economic growth, with the subsequent 1997 White Paper 11 setting the target of 12% of renewable energy consumption i by 2010. By 2005, a comprehensive European Union energy policy was approved, with the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive (RED) 12 mandating that 20% of the energy used within the EU come from renewable sources ii and the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive 13 mandating a reduction in final energy consumption to 1086 Mtoe iii . By 2019, the EU set a target of net zero emissions by 2050, and is currently supporting this goal via the European Green Deal 14 . However, at the time of writing, contemporary political and social challenges f...
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