Glossary
Glossary
Terminology
Building blocks are the economic sectors, such as energy, transport or industry, and cross-cutting areas, such as finance, innovation, and lifestyles, in which transformation is needed to achieve a climate neutral society by 2050, and across which ECNO tracks progress.
Building block assessment
Acceleration factor
Or the ‘required change in speed’ is the ratio of the required change versus the past change on a given indicator. This results in the example formulation: ‘We need to increase our annual emission reductions to at least 4.9 Mt CO2e per year – or 2.6 times faster than the 1.9 MtCO2e per year achieved in the past’.
Benchmarks
Future reference points against which progress for each indicator is compared. ECNO derives benchmarks from official EU sources, such as directives, regulations, strategies, and action plans, including their related impact assessments. Benchmarks often come in the form of quantified policy goals or targets.
Climate neutrality
Stands for the objective of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means that emissions are brought down as close to zero as possible, with remaining, difficult to abate emissions balanced by GHG removals within a given country or region.
Enablers
The supporting conditions and underlying changes needed to meet the objectives in a given building block. They are the opposite of barriers or inhibitors.
Historical data
Includes, but is not limited to, statistics from Member States harmonised and provided by Eurostat or the European Environment Agency (EEA) as well as from international organisations such as the OECD, FAO, or World Bank.
Indicators
Track the historical development and status of enablers and objectives based on quantitative data. An assessment of indicator progress compares the trend against the required development to meet a future reference point, where data and relevant benchmarks are available.
Objectives
Describe what needs to be achieved in each building block to reach climate neutrality.
Required change
The change that underlies a pathway that meets the identified benchmark or target. Where benchmarks are missing, the required change indicates a direction and speed of change.
Trend
The development of an indicator over time based on historical data. ECNO’s trendline is a straight, best-fit line that smooths out the variation in historical developments based on all data points, providing a sense of the general progress over time.
Creating job opportunities
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Key enabler insights: Creating job opportunities
The EU was able to create significantly more jobs as part of the transition to climate neutrality in the last few years. But the potential is not fully realised yet.
The employment rate in the regions most affected by the transition is progressing at a pace that is similar to the pace for the whole EU. Job creation in renewable energy has increased most in Portugal, followed by Germany and Spain, with photovoltaics being the most employing technology. National programmes such as the ‘Green Skills and Job Programme’ in Portugal or a training academy in a former coal region in Romania are supporting this development.
Diving deeper: progress towards creating job opportunities
EU-wide progress
The employment rate in regions most affected by the transition was not only the highest on record in 2022, but is also on track to meet the objective set by The European Pillar of Social Rights Actions Plan. There is room for further improvement as inequalities between regions remain. For employment in the renewable energy sector, the dynamics accelerated in 2022, and the indicator was on the verge of begin assessed as on track. In the employment in relevant environmental goods and services, there was progress too; however, the pace of growth needs to increase to meet the needs of the changing labour market.
Progress in Member States
For the indicators, progress in towards creating job opportunities has been assessed and compared in EU Member States.
Policy context and areas of action
The EU has a complex policy framework to support employment. The key policy measure in ‘regions in transition’ is the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM). Beyond the JTM, there is also the Effective Active Support to Employment (EASE): guidance to Member States (MS) on active labour market policies and their funding. To support employment in the emerging green energy sector, the EU has over 10 funding instruments, including the European Skills Agenda and RePowerEU with its sectoral strategies such as the EU Solar PV Alliance and the BUILD UP skills initiative. Several good practices examples also exist at the MS level, such as the ‘Green Skills and Jobs Programme’ in Portugal.
An effective policy tool to further support (green) job creation would be the introduction of specific and ambitious sector targets, both at the EU and MS level. Another priority area should be to adjust skills available in the labour market to the needs of rapidly growing - and changing – sectors fundamental to the transition to climate neutrality. The first step in this direction would be a state-led, systemic gathering of data on shortages of skilled professionals in each key transition profession, and the use of this data to create adequate training programmes.
