@@ -1052,9 +1052,9 @@ This illustrates an immense political challenge: ensuring a decent standard of l
Particularly in the coming phase of necessary restructuring of the European economy, a social protection mechanism of whatever kind assuring a decent life will play a central role. However, Europe's and in particular the eurozone's current institutions offer little monetary or fiscal leeway to its member states, especially the less wealthy where it would be particularly important, to strengthen or introduce such measures. In the eurozone, implementation fails due to the lack of a common economic policy, as well as the fact that the European Central Bank (ECB) (unlike other central banks) only has a mandate to stabilize prices, but not to provide full employment or other effective means of social protection for European citizens [@european_parliament_ecbs_2020]. In general there is a great need for action to increase the scope for national and/or EU-wide policy making; both to ensure the social protection of citizens and to enable the necessary investments to restructure infrastructure and the economy [@lagarde_climate_2021].
Strong progressive carbon pricing could have a positive distributional effect besides its effect on absolute emission reduction [@klenert_making_2018]. In addition, other distribution and transfer instruments [@gough_recomposing_2017], such as wealth and inheritance taxes, or more progressive income taxes [@chancel_carbon_2015], will have to be discussed in order to reduce the large differences in purchasing power within and between the countries of Europe, at least as long as expenditure remains coupled to environmental footprints [@haberl_systematic_2020].
Strong progressive carbon pricing could have a positive distributional effect besides its effect on absolute emission reduction [@klenert_making_2018] [@lamb_what_2020]. In addition, other distribution and transfer instruments [@gough_recomposing_2017], such as wealth and inheritance taxes, or more progressive income taxes [@chancel_carbon_2015], will have to be discussed in order to reduce the large differences in purchasing power within and between the countries of Europe, at least as long as expenditure remains coupled to environmental footprints [@haberl_systematic_2020].
Our study highlights the challenges largely implicit in the 1.5°C scenarios with respect to securing a decent standard of living for all, and provides further evidence that achieving this dual objective likely requires a shift in the current policy focus on growth in favor of decreasing environmental impacts and increasing social equity [@haberl_systematic_2020] [@dalessandro_feasible_2020] [@millward-hopkins_fair_2021]. Although our empirical investigation is limited to countries in Europe, we contend that our main conclusions apply in a similar or stronger form to the global achievement of climate and equity goals [@hubacek_poverty_2017] [@woodward_incrementum_2015] [@sovacool_dispossessed_2021] [@kartha_carbon_2020] [@lamb_what_2020] [@oswald_global_2021], as articulated in the sustainable development goals.
Our study highlights the challenges largely implicit in the 1.5°C scenarios with respect to securing a decent standard of living for all, and provides further evidence that achieving this dual objective likely requires a shift in the current policy focus on growth in favor of decreasing environmental impacts and increasing social equity [@haberl_systematic_2020] [@dalessandro_feasible_2020]. Although our empirical investigation is limited to countries in Europe, we contend that our main conclusions apply in a similar or stronger form to the global achievement of climate and equity goals, as articulated in the sustainable development goals.
