Environmental policies and social impacts

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 context­specific differences can have pro­found effects on the manifestation (or not) of these phenomena.