Summary

This report examines how the fight against poverty can be combined with the search for a development model that mitigates climate change and halts the erosion of biodiversity. The “just transition” requires that the workers and communities affected by the ecological transformation be protected from its impacts. But the transformation required also needs to open up new opportunities and strengthen the rights of people living in poverty. In specific areas, such as energy, buildings, food or mobility, “triple-dividend” actions can be taken that would reduce the ecological footprint while simultaneously creating employment opportunities for people with low levels of qualification and facilitating access to goods and services essential to the enjoyment of human rights. Such actions should be underpinned by a different development model that places the fight against inequalities above the exclusive focus on economic growth and that combats wasteful consumption rather than seeing it an ingredient of growth. “Building back better” does not mean returning to the status quo, but instead taking public action towards the eradication of poverty within planetary boundaries.