The Green Deal: what’s in it for you and me?
The Green Deal is something we are going to hear a lot more about. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen describes it as “Europe’s man on the moon moment”. The background to it lies in commitments made by the European Commission to addressing the ongoing problems of global warming, climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
First, a commitment was made in Paris, on 12 December 2015, to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. The Paris Agreement brings all 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
Second, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Farm to Fork Strategy are comprehensive, ambitious, long-term plans for protecting nature. They aim to put Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 with benefits for people, the climate and the planet. They are also the proposal for the EU’s contribution to the upcoming international negotiations on the global post2020 biodiversity framework.
The Green Deal combines both sets of commitments and charts a growth strategy and roadmap for achieving a climate neutral economy by 2050, halting and even reversing the loss of biodiversity, and doing so without reducing prosperity but by improving people’s quality of life through green technology, through cleaner air and water, better health and by making the EU’s economy sustainable.
The Commission proposed a €1.8 trillion budget to kickstart the Green Deal. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, the consequent unprecedented restrictions and stifled economic activity across the EU, the ongoing reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and political lobbying by interest groups, have all stoked fears that green ambitions may be seriously diluted leading to widespread dismay among environmental campaigners.
Yet, the benefits of the plan are very significant. The overriding aim of the Green Deal is to turn climate and environmental challenges into opportunities, to decouple economic growth from resource use, to cut pollution, to restore biodiversity, to make the transition just and inclusive for all, and to be climate neutral by 2050 .