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This paper explores the extent to which the concept of justice, embedded at the core of the European Union's public communications regarding its climate goals, is regarded coherently across governance levels. What do stakeholders across governance levels understand by justice and how is this reflected in their overall perceptions regarding the just transition? We aim to make both a conceptual and an empirically informative contribution by qualitatively exploring how the normative framing at EU level is translated via national contexts at the central level in Member States and then further to local communities via regional and local policy-making mechanisms, in four EU Members States – Finland, France, Germany, and Romania. Our work reveals the deeper impact that the differing interpretations of justice have on the shape policies take and on the allocation of funds, tasks, and responsibilities across governance levels.

EU policy documents pursue a win-win outcome for climate policies and the combatting of energy poverty. Yet current policies do not achieve the full participation of the energy-poor in regard to energy transitions. Structural factors like welfare policy, housing- and energy-market mechanisms, and tenancy prevent the energy poor from benefitting from energy transitions. Based on document analyses and in-depth interviews with 35 German households, we describe how the energy poor perceive the sustainability narrative associated with the German energy transition. Being part of this narrative creates a sense of belonging, while being deprived of the opportunity manifests yet another dimension of social exclusion. We portray three household types: those supporting climate action and energy transition with limited possibility for participation beyond energy saving; indifferent households with low energy consumption due to financial precarity; and extremely overburdened households with (mental) health issues. All groups express support for energy transitions yet remain excluded by its policies that fail to account for multidimensional vulnerability and that remain restricted to either energy-saving or one-time relief measures, both of which quickly reach their limits, especially during energy crises. Highlighting the exclusion of these groups requires specifying that distributional justice debates to include access to measures designed to enhance participation in this narrative. Such measures would enable the fair distribution of coping mechanisms to manage rising energy prices and often determine whether households can contribute to climate action while maintaining the basic comforts of life. On a policy level, only a radical shift towards inclusive, democratic policy design can help overcome the exclusion.

Trust is a fundamental ingredient of prosperous democracies. In Europe, trust in existing elected democratic institutions is fading while authoritarian nationalist movements grow. Experiences of neglect, ignorance, and inferiority are one explanation for this. This paper explores the link between the experiences of households in a state of energy poverty and their trust in institutions and social networks. Using qualitative data from ten different European countries, we show that a lack of trust in both public and private institutions is widespread among energy-poor households. Our interviewees show distrust in various dimensions. In their contacts with institutions, they report experiences of powerlessness, bad and unfair treatment, and feelings of inferiority. While some interviewees do trust single individuals within institutions, others trust only their own social networks and some have no trust in anyone. We further show how trust in networks or (people in) institutions can strengthen the coping capacities of energy-poor households while a lack of trust even cuts people off from the support they could attain and thus deepens their state of energy poverty.