Environmental policies and social impacts. Suggestions from Europeans cities

Are we really sure that green and sustainable are always good for everyone? Ilaria Beretta tries to go beyond the rhetoric of sustainability to understand more deeply the interconnection between economy, society and environment in urban contexts, in the belief that only empirical research and the analysis of data can lead to a correct reading, which is as objective as possible, of the complex reality in which we live. The author, through a comparison between European and U.S. American cities, focuses in particular on policies related to climate change and land use, showing how these, if not properly monitored in their social effects, risk contributing to the tightening of social inequalities, through processes such as ecological and green gentrification. The volume is structured in three parts. In the first section, she illustrates the main European Union’s sustainability and environmental urban policies, focusing on climate change and land use strategies. The second chapter provides a conceptual framework through the environmental justice paradigm, as it applies in Europe and in U.S. Finally, the third chapter offers an empirical analysis of ecological and green gentrification processes, comparing American and European realities, and highlighting how context-specific differences can have profound effects on the manifestation (or not) of these phenomena.