Social risks new paths : climate change

Climate change presents society with new challenges and significant changes. For example, natural disasters often cause enormous material damage, and global warming poses serious health problems. In addition, the labour market is transforming towards a more sustainable economy, which means that some sectors (e.g. carbon intensive industries) are especially affected by this transformation. Furthermore, many measures aimed at reducing pollution are taken to tackle global warming. The common characteristic of these consequences of global warming is that their effects are not neutral, it puts the burden on vulnerable members of society. The losses of climate change are unevenly distributed within the population and therefore people are at risk of falling behind. From a social point of view, but also in the light of achieving the climate targets, it is important that everyone can participate in the green transition. This research aims, through the angle of social security law, to remedy this overlooked inequality as a result of climate change. Within social security law, certain aspects of the climate risk are already being dealt with (e.g. sickness and disability insurance, unemployment insurance, and social assistance). However, the threat of climate change is currently not considered as one of the separate risks covered by social security. The aim of this research is therefore to determine how the social consequences of climate change can be dealt with in their entirety by social security law, and whether a change in the current social risks is called for.