Members of the LAMARTRA team presented their work

On Monday 26^th May, researchers, policymakers, social partners, and civil society actors gathered at the National Labour Council / Central Economic Council to discuss about how to achieve a just and democratic transition towards a low-carbon economy.

Members of the LAMARTRA team presented their work diving into:
- Employment risks and opportunities linked to decarbonization
- Workers participation at firm level for the transitions
- The role of social dialogue for governing the transitions
- The role of visions about the future in agriculture and construction

Louis Florin and Tom Bauler presented the results of the last phase of our work at ULB, focused on the role of social dialogue to increase the level of integration between climate and socio-economic policies.

The presentation was followed by a presentation by the secretary-general of the Central Economic Council, Luc Denayer, on their approach to integrating environmental concerns wihtin the council's work, followed by a rich panel discussion with representatives of the social partners and environmental NGO's.

The policy brief argues that social dialogue remains a key democratic tool for managing transitions. Social concertation processes that address redistributive and social issues can also serve as mechanisms to integrate environmental issues within economic decisions. However, in Belgium, while efforts to incorporate environmental issues into federal-level social dialogue and inter-institutional cooperation are growing, fragmentation in the social dialogue architecture limits the potential for further integration. Even though growing ecological, social, and economic pressures make consensus harder to achieve - potentially leading to more top-down governance - it seems social dialogue musts integrate climate issues in parallel to socio-economic ones to remain relevant and influential. We concluded by saying that social dialogue is a great tool to manage complex and ambivalent goals. This legacy is more relevant than ever for the complex challenges we face.

Check the policy briefs on our conference website: https://lamartra.be/lamartra-final-conference/

You can stay informed about the project through our Linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lamartra/