It’s time to deliver on the social promise of the Paris Agreement on climate, opinion by Carlo Monticelli, Governor

These words from Lou Stührenberg, a young climate delegate to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Climate Negotiations, struck a powerful chord during the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB)'s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. They remind us that climate transition is not just about CO₂ emissions: it is a race against time, but also a race to strengthen social cohesion, on which the public's acceptance of this transition depends.

Adopted by 196 States at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris on 12 December 2015, the Agreement aims to continue efforts "to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels" in order to reduce the risk of triggering much more serious impacts on the planet.

Reading the text of the Paris Agreement again today is enlightening. It states that climate action must be set "in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty'", taking into account the principles of equity and the needs of the most vulnerable. This statement was not merely decorative: it represented a key political message and the moral foundation of the Agreement. And yet, ten years later, this social promise remains largely unfulfilled.

Admittedly, considerable progress has been made since COP 21 in Paris, particularly on economic and technological fronts. But at the recent COP30 in Belém, the consensus was clear: we are still well off course.

The good news is that a more incisive social approach can help unlock progress on climate change and inject new momentum.

Over the past decade, the focus on funding amounts, financial mechanisms to achieve them, and mitigation targets to combat climate change has often overshadowed the human dimension. At the same time, territorial divisions, budgetary pressures and inequalities have continued to grow.

It is precisely this dissonance that young people point to when they say, "Let's act quickly" - quickly to catch up, but also quickly to prevent the social divide from becoming a major obstacle to climate ambition. In fact, climate is no longer an isolated component of development. It has become an integral part of it: it affects budgetary sustainability, business competitiveness, territorial stability and citizen confidence. Floods, energy insecurity, pressure on health systems and the erosion of human capital are daily realities for millions of people.

This is why we are witnessing a fundamental paradigm shift: from a logic of "additionality" when the Agreement was signed, we have moved to a logic of multiple "co-benefits" - ensuring that every euro invested simultaneously strengthens inclusion, and economic and social resilience. The priority now is to move on to creating catalysts for the transition. This is in line with the spirit that the drafters of the Paris Agreement wanted to instil from the outset.

At the CEB, this conviction that social issues are at the heart of the climate emergency is embedded in our DNA. Created in 1956, the CEB is a multilateral development bank with an exclusively social mandate from its 43 member countries.

The Bank works to promote social cohesion in Europe, occupying a unique space where multilateral financing, inclusion and solidarity come together. Today, this position is more relevant than ever. A transition that weakens society is a transition that will not succeed. A transition that strengthens social cohesion is a transition that can last.

At the commemorative event, organised by the CEB with the French authorities and endorsed by the UN, a strong consensus emerged: the Paris Agreement is not only about climate ambition, it is also about social ambition. And this ambition must become the driving force for the next decade.

In concrete terms, this means in particular that:

- Resilient infrastructure must improve access to essential services and reduce energy poverty;

- Industrial decarbonisation must be designed with local communities and their workers in mind;

- Climate policies must support skills, decent employment and social mobility.

- At the same time, well-designed social policies and investments must enable countries to achieve their climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement.

The CEB is working precisely in this direction. We finance schools, hospitals, affordable housing and risk prevention systems, which enable populations to absorb climate and economic shocks. Thanks to our "vulnerability lens", we systematically identify where the impacts of the projects we finance intersect with social inequalities, in order to target investments in a way that strengthens human resilience.

Ten years after Paris, the challenge is twofold: to accelerate climate action while restoring the social trust that makes it possible. If the past decade was one of raising awareness, the next must be one of integration: integrating climate, economy and social issues into coherent, credible, financeable and politically sustainable strategies.

In ten years' time, our success will not be judged solely in gigatonnes, but against three criteria: the resilience of populations, the fairness of opportunities and the democratic strength of our societies.

The Paris Agreement has given us the framework.

Young people have given us the mandate.

Now it is up to us to deliver on the social promise of Paris.