European Green Deal

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.

In this dossier with Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe), we put forward an Action Plan for the European Commission to accelerate the transition to 100% renewables in the next EU legislative term.

The Pesticide Atlas 2022 is a comprehensive overview of facts and data on toxic chemicals used in agriculture, their impact on biodiversity, the climate, people and planet’s health, and alternative solutions for more sustainable food and farming systems.

This publication series aims at contributing to the emergence of a transformative economic thinking, integrating environmental, social, and economic dimensions, after the wreckage of neoliberal economic thought that clearly has reached its date of expiry. It is the product of a collaboration of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the ZOE Institute for Future-Fit Economies, and Finanzwende Recherche.

With a one-year delay, the 2021 UN climate change conference (COP26) is scheduled to take place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, under the presidency of the UK. For the first time since the Paris Agreement, signatory states must submit updated and more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction pledges. Will they help closing the so far big gap between necessary reductions and reality?  What are ways to achieve them in a socially and gender-just manner? What financing contributions are needed to support developing countries? What false solutions must be avoided? We explore those questions in various contributions, with a focus on the EU.

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission presented its proposals for implementing the EU Climate Law - the so-called “Fit-for-55” package. This will be the starting signal for one of the most important EU debates of the next years: how can the EU reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and how can it become climate neutral by 2050?

There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced. But if the sector continues to grow as it has up to now, almost 360 million tons of meat will be produced and consumed worldwide in 2030. With ecological effects that are hard to imagine.

Sustainable transport and mobility are key to tackle the climate crisis and to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal. However, transport today accounts for nearly 30 percent of the CO₂ emissions within the European Union. How can the EU reduce its transport and mobility emissions while connecting citizens, creating green jobs and leading the innovation in the sector?

The reform of the EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) is underway. Each EU Member State is writing its National CAP Strategic Plan. Will these CAP Strategic Plans pave the way for a sustainable agriculture, forestry, and rural development – in the EU and beyond?

The dossier covers Green proposals and initiatives and on the key priorities of the European Green Deal, the Future of the EU and the Role of the EU in the world in the context of the German EU Council Presidency from July until December 2020.