Europe's Just Green Transition beyond the SDGs: towards a preliminary governance typology

The European Green Deal outlines the European Union’s strategy to achieve a carbon-neutral society, aligning with the UN Agenda 2030. The Just Transition Mechanism extends the Green Deal to the social dimension of sustainability. Together, they compose the Just Green Transition (JGT) framework, conceived to go beyond the Sustainable Development Goals by introducing a value-driven approach supported by specific resources and governance models. Yet, its implementation is uneven due to Europe's institutional and territorial heterogeneity. Drawing on evidence from the ESPON NoStaGeo project, the contribution explores how JGT is governed across 40 European institutional contexts, with particular attention to institutional instruments and spatial arrangements. On this basis, the authors propose a preliminary typology of JGT governance, suggesting that, while no one-size-fits-all model exists, effective JGT governance requires combining strong multi-level and multisector coordination with territorial flexibility and stakeholder inclusion.