What's Politics Doing in the EU?

As recently as this month, the EU has presented the 2030 Climate Target Plan, where the Commission proposes to raise the EU's ambition on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. Compared to the previous target of at least 40%, this is a substantial increase. Up until now, the EU has already made strides towards making a difference in the climate crisis, such as reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 23% compared to 1990, opposed to growing GDP by 63% in the same period, proving a more efficient use of resources is possible. However, this is not the whole picture. Overall, the European Commission has summarized its plans for a sustainable EU in the European Green Deal, a roadmap of investments and pieces of legislation to make the economies of the member states more circular and less emission-heavy.

Particularly the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, has been very vocal about turning Europe green, with bold goals like being the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The new formal framework to achieve this has been presented in March 2020 and aims to transform the EU into a "fair and prosperous society", based on a competitive economy where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. In detail, the European Union aims at:

• Achieving climate-neutrality across all sectors and greenhouse gases (not only CO2). While greenhouse gas emissions should be avoided in the first place, removal of GHG will still be necessary to compensate for emissions in sectors where decarbonisation is hardest. Additionally, the natural sink of forests, agricultural lands and wetlands should be maintained and further increased and paired with carbon removal technologies (such as carbon capture) should further decrease emissions.

• Reviewing the trajectory of the impact the EU's actions are having every five years.

• Strengthening adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability on climate adaptation.

While 79% of Europeans agree that climate action like the goals just mentioned will lead to innovation, it is not always clear what is actually meant by that. The EU has identified some larger areas where innovation will make the most impact. Namely, they aim at investing in cleaner and cheaper forms of public and private transport, more energy-efficient buildings and decarbonizing the energy sector. A classic example of such investments is the €145 million modernization of a hydro generation plant in Portugal, paired with an update of the whole local electricity distribution network, but there are many more.

Investments in renewable energy production are an important pillar of the EU's carbon neutrality strategy.

In addition to theoretical plans and resolutions, the EU has also put in place "The Just Transition Mechanism", helping the most affected regions, industries and workers to face the challenge of the transition to a climate-neutral economy. This mechanism will mobilize around €150 billion in investments, mainly through the Just Transition Fund, which focuses on economic reconversion measures, reskilling of affected workers and job seeking assistance.

In general, the whole strategy of course not only strives to make a big contribution towards protecting the planet, but goes hand in hand with helping the European economy becoming more competitive, especially in light of the heavy damage the current pandemic has inflicted upon it. Namely, all the big initiatives we talked about in this article; the formal framework for climate neutrality, the Just Transition Mechanism and the 2030 Climate Plan, all include economic objectives that go along with the environmental and sustainability objectives. Just to name a few, they aim to create high-quality jobs, supporting clean technology innovation as well as easing the negative economic impact of declining carbon-intensive sectors. I always think it is crucial to stress that the fact that these investments focus on broader issues like climate neutrality, does not take away from the many economic benefits these projects hold. In fact, I wrote my Bachelor thesis on the topic of what the main economic benefits of sustainable development public investments are in the EU. If you're interested, you can have a read below.

Benefits of Sustainable Investments.

Download • 539KB

What is the impact of this?

• Well, this is an article taking on a gigantic topic, but I would say that next to the climate objectives, I believe that there is an incredible opportunity to help areas of Europe that have been hit hardest by the crisis to become more powerful players in the EU's economy in a way that does not further put a strain on our planet.

What can you do?

• Since we talked about things that are decided at the highest levels, you might think there is not much you can yourself. But even these are not exactly things you have a say in, it is always good to stay informed about them.

• Additionally, every once in a while you do have some power, because you can vote in the European elections, the last ones being last year, in 2019.