A cold draft for many households: learning from Sweden’s Social Climate Plan to promote a truly just transition

The authors evaluate the Swedish Social Climate Plan’s performance through the Transitional Assistance Framework, and draw on examples from other member states’ proposed plans to provide recommendations to policymakers on how the Social Climate Fund can be used more effectively to promote a just transition. Key messages: Sweden’s Social Climate Plan, intended to enable a just implementation of the new EU Emissions Trading System (ETS2), does not adequately address the structural drivers and root causes of energy and transport poverty. An opportunity has been missed to target drivers of vulnerability more broadly in favour of promoting specific technologies. An electric vehicle premium targeted at transport-vulnerable households, the only suggested measure in the plan, performs poorly in its scope and design, while also leaving 120 000 heating-poor households without action. To ensure that EU member states’ plans deliver on their objectives, we offer concrete recommendations that can leverage measures in the Social Climate Plan from conservative and narrow to adaptive and broad, enabling long-term social impacts for a truly just transition.