European Green Deal

At COP30, Europe’s climate leadership is at risk. Recent steps back on the European Green Deal and new offset rules make it harder for the EU to convince others to be more ambitious.

Czechia voted for change – but what kind? Andrej Babiš makes a comeback, the Greens return to parliament, and populism takes a new shape. Adéla Jurečková, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Prague office, breaks down the results and what they mean for Czech democracy and the EU.

Our Böll EU Newsletter this month looks at the future of the European Green Deal, the EU 2040 climate target and the different articles and publications we have launched in the past weeks.

How will the EU contribute to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the 2030s? The EU should have come up with a plan already last year if it had followed its own Climate Law and if was to fulfil its duties as a signing party of the Paris Climate Agreement. Now, after much delay, the European Commission has finally presented its legislative proposal for a new 2040 climate target. But is it enough?

As the EU rolls out the Clean Industrial Deal, it must consider how its domestic policies may impact its trade relations and global standing. Industrial policy decisions taken in Brussels will have ripple effects, including on partners in the Global South. Addressing potential negative spillovers is not just a question of climate justice and good diplomacy – it is a strategic imperative.

Everyone from industry to pundits, and even NGOs, have for months lamented a lack of a comprehensive automotive industrial strategy across the EU, to match the continent’s green deal agenda of CO2 targets. This finally landed in early March, dubbed the Automotive Industrial Action Plan. This analysis looks at its most prominent proposals across clean vehicle, supply chain and infrastructure aspects, outlining its strengths and missteps.

Five months into the new European Commission, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union is releasing an updated European Green Deal Risk Radar, spotlighting critical risks to the EU’s climate, environmental, and sustainability laws in the 2024–2029 legislative term.

The EU promised a renewable energy future – but is it still on track? As political shifts, policy delays and legal battles unfold, the energy transition faces new hurdles. Are we still moving forward, or is Europe starting to backpedal? Seden Anlar reports.

Are ‘highly energy-efficient and sustainable’ data centres by 2030 realistic? Jessica Commins and Kristina Irion argue that despite efficiency measures, unchecked sector growth threatens sustainability. This post presents ten elements that will be key in the development of the iteration of the EU data centre sustainability policy.

On 18 July 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was elected for a second mandate and presented to the European Parliament her Political Guidelines for the next European Commission. A new European Commission will kick-off its work on 1 December 2024, after its approval by the European Parliament. We take a look at von der Leyen's promises for the first 100 days (and beyond) of the new European Commission.

Overuse of artificial fertiliser is bad for soils and, in the case of nitrogen fertilisers, for the climate as well. Moreover, pesticides deplete the soil of beneficial organisms. Yet these products earn big money for big companies, which influence governments, often blocking policy changes needed to protect people and the environment.

To win hearts and minds, and to prevent green backlash, net-zero policies must translate into lower bills and better services for ‘ordinary’ households. An inclusive demand flexibility strategy is vital to this. 

The lithium deal brings a new quality to Serbia’s foreign policy zigzagging. At one stroke, Serbia became a strategic partner and the guarantor for the future of the European Green Deal.

There is a real risk that the European Green Deal will be weakened this new European policy cycle. What exact changes will be made to it? And will or won’t these changes ensure that we stay “the course on all of our goals”, as promised by re-elected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen? Our new European Green Deal Risk Radar looks into that.

The EU has already taken important actions for private finance to support the transition to a greener economy, and it cannot waste this one chance to finish the work. The sustainable finance legislative framework could help boost the European economy going forward – it is the last stretch before reaping the benefits of the efforts made so far.

Carbon emissions from transport will still account for 44% of Europe’s total in 2030. The sector's decarbonisation comes with broad challenges, including industrial transformation to scale new technologies, secure local green jobs, and ramp up new supply chains. Transport & Environment's Julia Poliscanova looks at the building blocks of a successful mobility transition for the next European Commission. 

The outgoing European Commission has upscaled the use of unilateral trade instruments to achieve security, competitiveness and sustainability objectives. In times of environmental crises and rising geopolitical tensions, the incoming European Commission should implement the ambition to embed European trade within planetary boundaries and revive international cooperation around environmental trade goals.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tasked Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank and former Italian Prime Minister, to write a comprehensive report on the state of the European economy. In this long-awaited report, the Italian economist provides a substantive analysis on how a changing geopolitical landscape, an energy shock, demographic change, climate change, and international competition put stress on the European economy and the European social model. We asked Sander Tordoir, Chief Economist at the Centre for European Reform, for his first reactions to the report.

Habemus presidentem: With 401 votes in favour, the European Parliament has reconfirmed Ursula von der Leyen as the president of the European Commission. This vote was not a given. Unable to rely on the support of the super grand coalition of conservatives, social democrats, and liberals alone, von der Leyen went out of her way to secure Green votes in particular.

The European Parliament elections might be over, but that doesn’t mean that the constellation of power in the EU is all set in stone. In this episode, we’re looking at what the European election result means for the EU and the future of the Green Deal, how the Greens in the European Parliament are doing, what their priorities are and whether the Greens just might be a new power broker that’s necessary for the conservatives, social democrats and liberals to hold a stable majority. Roderick Kefferpütz, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's EU office, discusses this with Bas Eickhout, long-standing Member of the European Parliament from the Dutch Greens, and Co-Chair of the Greens/EFA Group.