Climate

The European Commission is currently approving the national recovery and resilience plans that EU Member States have submitted to benefit from EU grants and loans to build back after the crisis. Despite the obligation to consider gender impacts and the fact that women have been particularly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, most recovery and resilience plans do not sufficiently do so and fail to link efforts towards a green and gender-just society. The European Green Deal and the EU Digital Agenda are important spending priorities, but the risk of a backlash on gender equality is real if they are pursued in a gender-blind manner.

US President Joe Biden is visiting Europe for the first time, on the occasion of the G7, NATO and EU-US summits. The opportunities for a new era of transatlantic cooperation are immense, but the window of opportunity to seize them is small.

Crises are moments when the hairline cracks and chips in the structures of our societies start to show. Whether the crisis is of an economic, public health, rule of law or climate nature: for bold responses to the crises of our times, strong and progressive alliances are needed now more than ever. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that countries can marshal significant resources quickly and at scale in an emergency. The climate crisis requires no less. Only when longstanding issues of climate finance are resolved, can the international system ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable people, communities, and countries can make the necessary changes the whole world needs.

With the two-day Biden leaders' summit on climate attended by 40 countries, the United States has returned to the international stage of climate diplomacy. Whether the increased ambition of new climate action pledges via video made by several core countries can be implemented in a binding manner, however, remains an open question.

Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector are a major contributing factor to climate change as the key component of fossil gas has a global warming potential 86 times higher than CO2. Regulating methane emissions in the oil and gas upstream supply chain as well as coal sector is therefore a powerful tool and urgent for mitigating GHG emissions and meeting climate targets. It is important that upcoming EU legislation be binding and apply to the entire supply chain of the oil, gas and coal industries, including domestic sources and gas imports from third countries. Only if all measures apply to EU imports, wholesale and retail, the impact of methane emissions on the global climate can truly be addressed.

Putting a price on CO2 emissions is necessary for climate protection, and applying the polluter-pays principle is an important step toward climate justice. As long as follow-up costs are not taken into account, climate protection will not have sufficient weight in investment decisions.

The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is an historic opportunity. They both stand for a political commitment to liberal democracy and a societal commitment to unity instead of division. Democracy instead of autocracy, cooperation instead of divisiveness and nationalism: these are also the most important political fault lines for the shaping of the future global order.

One of Joe Biden’s first acts after he entered the White House was to sign a series of climate-related executive orders, signalling a clear intention to waste no time in reversing the destructive policies of his predecessor. Reflecting the urgency of the matter, the new US president has presented the most ambitious climate plan to date. What has he promised, and which measures can be implemented – and how quickly?

"Build back better" has been Joe Biden’s campaign promise. Climate policy is central to this, both in domestic and foreign policy. Ultimately, it is also a question of whether the Biden government can succeed in regaining lost credibility on the international stage.