What about the climate? An update on the European Green Deal
By Ben Rosenbaum, Reading Time: ca. 4 minutes
With so many other crises dominating the EU’s agenda, the issue of climate action is much less prominent in the news compared to 6 years ago. But is this development also true for the EU’s actions to combat climate change, or are we just not hearing about it?
Fridays for Future protest ahead of the 2024 European elections, Source: Molgreen, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
When Ursula von der Leyen took up the reins of the Commission in 2019, her European Green Deal quickly became one of the flagship policies of her first term, as many had previously hoped. The Fridays for Future protests had become a global movement and the results of the 2019 elections to the European Parliament were partly interpreted as a “Green Wave”. Thus, climate policy climbed the political agenda, and von der Leyen responded with three goals:
net-zero emissions by 2050
economic growth decoupled from resource use (dematerialisation), and
“no person or place left behind”.
The European Climate Law of 2021 further mandated that, compared to 1990, emission levels should decline by 55% until 2030 and by 90% until 2040.
And how did the Commission set out to accomplish all these targets? In true EU fashion: Through a long and overwhelming list of funds, projects, initiatives, and other measures. You name it, they got it: the Just Transition Fund, the Social Climate Fund, the EU Solidarity Fund, NextGenerationEU, REPowerEU, all financed in part through the EU Emissions Trading Systems (ETS).
These funds have various targets, from energy transition to supporting workers during structural change in the economy, from providing money to regions of the EU especially affected by climate change to disaster relief and beyond.
These objectives look quite comprehensive and even encouraging: money is being provided, and measures are being taken to implement the European Green Deal as soon as possible, right? Well, not quite. A lot has changed since 2019: Covid has come and gone. And now, in 2025, the EU is also fighting other crises, first and foremost the war in Ukraine and the uncertainty of a second Trump presidency with all its ramifications in defence, trade, digital services, and beyond.
In a recent decision, the Commission also watered down its emphasis on environmental protection concerning farming, moving away from the ambitious Farm to Fork strategy which had been a part of the Green Deal. In other areas, the Green Deal is also encountering problems: a recent report by the Commission’s joint research centre concludes that out of 154 identified targets, “32 are currently ‘on track’ and 64 are identified as ‘acceleration needed’”, while 15 are labelled as ‘not progressing’ or even ‘regressing’. In the summary of its findings, the JRC highlights some areas that are in particular need of more action, like faster expansion of renewable energy sources, investments in infrastructure and innovation, better protection of biodiversity and improved monitoring of progress on the European Green Deal.
The JRC partially blames the EU’s legislative process for this slow progress in climate goals, with some laws only recently introduced as well as problems with implementation at member state level. These developments demonstrate that while the European Green Deal has brought about some real changes, a lot of work remains to reach its ambitious targets.
However, the question remains what action is necessary to meet the ambitious targets for 2030, and how other crises might interfere with the goals set by the European Commission and member state governments. When Ursula von der Leyen was asked about the matter in a recent interview, she responded by highlighting that politics focus on long-term commitments to an issue and resilience in the face of opposition. She also affirmed her commitment to climate action, for example by reforming and expanding the Emissions Trade Scheme to other sectors of the economy.
It might be down to each of us to decide if such tones are just politician-speak without real intentions, or if von der Leyen’s comments are sincere and should make us optimistic about the climate action taken at the European Commission. But whether we are optimistic or pessimistic, the important thing is that with all the crises that dominate the news right now and all the scenarios we are confronted with on a daily basis, we do not become cynical. If we know one thing about politics, it is that the most prominent topics constantly change. If we consider that climate action has risen and fallen on the agenda throughout the past 5 years, it might very well rise again in the near future.
