Socially responsible instruments for environmental protection: Toolbox for the assessment and development of environmental and ecologically relevant policy measures from a social perspective (Social Environmental Policy Toolbox)

The overall objective of the project is to support the Federal Environment Ministry (BMUKN) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in evaluating and developing environmental policy measures in such a way that potential social impacts can be identified and assessed at an early stage and taken into account in the design of measures.

To achieve this goal, the project pursues the following sub-goals, each of which is addressed by a work package (WP):

• the preparation of an analytical concept on social impacts (benefits, but also costs and burdens) and their distribution, as well as the identification of options for the socially responsible design of environmental policy measures (WP 1);

• the creation of a user-friendly toolbox containing a checklist for the social compatibility of proposed environmental policy measures (‘social check’) and other tools that can be used by units at the BMUKN in a low-threshold manner to identify possible synergies and conflicts with social objectives at an early stage, minimise conflicts and design policy measures in a socially acceptable manner (WP 2);

• Analysis of the resources and capacities required to institutionalise analyses and assessments of the social impacts of environmental policy measures (including quantitative analyses of distributional effects) in the BMUKN's area of responsibility (WP 3);

• Short-term implementation of assessments of social (distributional) effects in the development of concrete environmental policy proposals at the BMUKN and UBA, with the aim of designing measures that are socially responsible (WP 4).

The project focuses on the distributional effects of environmental policy measures, i.e. the socio-structural and spatial distribution of social impacts (benefits and costs/burdens) within Germany, with particular consideration given to vulnerable population and employment groups.