What is the European Green Deal?

‍Launched in 2019 at the European level in response to the climate challenge, the European Green Deal is a plan of unprecedented magnitude at the level of the European Union. It is the EU's roadmap and its new growth strategy to combat global warming and environmental degradation. The objective? Making Europe the first climate-neutral continent!
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This action plan is considered to be one of the most ambitious political initiatives carried out by the European Union, which raises a lot of hope. For Member States, this is a real opportunity to act jointly and effectively at European level to fight global warming.
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What is the European Green Deal? What is its content and what are the objectives set by this ambitious plan? Today, 4 years after its launch, where are we? Has the implementation of this plan been successful or, on the contrary, insufficient?
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We go through all these questions together so that you become unbeatable on the subject.

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What are the motivations and ambitions of the European Green Deal?

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The birth of the European Green Deal: when climate emergency meets political initiative

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To respond to the climate emergency, the European Commission chaired by Ursula Von der Leyen presented its European Green Deal in December 2019 - also known as the European Green Deal.

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This key political initiative of the European Union is a commitment made by the 27 Member States to face the challenges of climate change and ongoing environmental degradation. Through this European Green Deal, the Member States set themselves the objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, thus respecting the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement.

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Concretely, it consists ofa set of binding legislative measures and political initiatives, affecting various fields and aiming to achieve this famous objective of carbon neutrality in 2050. Moreover, the President of the European Commission considers this plan to be the number one priority of her mandate.

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Objective carbon neutrality in 2050 for the European Union!

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The European Union's desire through the Green Deal is to transform the European economy by making it more sustainable and resilient. This desire is translated on paper into several concrete objectives:

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• The main objective is to make Europe The first climate-neutral continent by 2050. This means that all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be absorbed by carbon sinks and net emissions will be zero.

• To achieve this main objective, the European Commission has set a shorter-term interim objective: reducing net GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

• Two other unquantified objectives have been set out by the European Commission:

• Economic growth decoupled from the use of resources
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• Ensure that no social group or territory is left behind: she insists on the need to implement a transition that promotes sustainable growth while promoting social justice.

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To achieve its ambitions, Europe is equipping itself with a legislative weapon called the “Climate Package” or “Objective 55 Adjustment Package”. It concerns all sectors and consists of several concrete legislative texts aimed at achieving the goals of reducing GHG emissions.

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How is the European Green Deal organized?

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The key sectors of the European Green Deal and priority projects

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The measures announced and planned in the Green Deal are ambitious and affect all sectors of the economy. A short overview of the various strategies of the European Union.

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Transforming the European energy mix

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In 2020, the European Union's energy mix consisted of nearly 70% fossil fuels - oil (36%), natural gas (22%) and coal (11%) while renewable energies represent 22% of the energy mix. In recent years, the share of fossil fuels in the European mix has decreased while the share of renewable energies has increased (22% in 2020 compared to 16% in 2012).

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With regard to European dependence on hydrocarbons, Eurostat estimates that in 2021 the European Union was 55.5% dependent of its imports for its total energy consumption and that 40% of the gas consumed in the European Union in 2021 came from Russia.

The war in Ukraine has also strengthened the consensus around the need to reduce external energy dependence and accelerate the transition to renewable energies.

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In order to achieve carbon neutrality, the European Commission is focusing on two key areas:
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• Increase the share of renewable energies in the European energy mix while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. The initial objective was to increase the share of renewable energies in the European energy mix to 40% by 2030. After very long negotiations, Parliament, Commission and Member States finally reached an agreement last March. Objective: to increase the share of renewable energies in the European electricity mix to 42.5% by 2030.
• Improve energy efficiency (buildings etc.) by reducing energy losses by 36% to 39%.

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‍Encouraging the development of sustainable mobility

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Transport is another key area of the Green Deal. It is one of the most emitting sectors: it alone accounts for a quarter of CO2e emissions at European level and it is the only sector whose emissions have increased in the last 20 years. The aim of the Green Deal is to reduce emissions from this sector by 90% in 2050 ! That is to say if the transformations are likely to be profound.

To achieve this, the EU is trying to build ambitious legislation.

She plans to:

• A 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from cars by 2030 (50% for light commercial vehicles)
• The ban on the sale of new combustion cars from 2035.

In addition, the European Union seeks to promote sustainable mobility : use of low-emission vehicles, development of electrification and charging infrastructures, reform of the carbon market by extending its field of application to private road transport in particular, etc.

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The freight transport sector is also affected. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2020 this sector is responsible for 9% of French GHG emissions (which corresponds to 40 million tons of CO2 equivalent).

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A proposal from the European Commission aims to rreduce GHG emissions from heavy trucks by 45% by 2030 to reach 90% by 2040. To achieve this, the EU intends to activate several decarbonization levers: redefinition of the energy mix in this sector, a strong modal shift from road freight to rail and inland waterway, improvement of the occupancy rate through the sharing and optimization of loads, support and optimization of loads, support and training of workers and the establishment of “decarbonization effort” certifications.

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The Green Deal also foresees a profound transformation of the aviation sector by encouraging the development of sustainable biofuels and investing in research. The RefuelEU Aviation proposal establishes new rules requiring fuel suppliers to provide a minimum portion of sustainable aviation fuels to be mixed with kerosene: 2% minimum by 2025 and 70% by 2050.
Last April, a political agreement was reached on this proposal.

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The Green Deal also proposes a carbon price for the aviation sector, which was previously exempt (just like the shipping sector, which should also be concerned).

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Starting a clean “3rd industrial revolution” by focusing on innovation

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The Green Deal calls for the transformation of the industrial sector by encouraging innovation and investing in clean technologies.

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The European Union therefore sees an ecological emergency. the opportunity to develop new markets while creating numerous green jobs. For example, it wants to create 160,000 additional green jobs in the construction sector by 2030.

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The expected transformations in all economic sectors will profoundly change the face of the European economic fabric. Some activities will disappear, others on the contrary will be widely encouraged. Overall, all sectors will be subject to profound decarbonization and some highly polluting sectors such as the automotive sector or heavy industry (cement, steel, etc.) are in danger of being transformed: development of battery factories for the electrification of the car fleet, modification of production processes towards carbon-neutral technologies, etc...

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The green taxonomy is a tool created by the EU for the classification of economic activities that have a favorable impact on the environment. Objective: to direct European Union investments towards activities considered sustainable! On December 31, 2021, the European Commission proposed a new classification integrating gas and nuclear, two controversial sectors. After much debate, Parliament finally took the view that Nuclear and gas could be included in the green taxonomy.

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Bringing nature back into our lives: protecting biodiversity and health!

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World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released A report in 2022 which warns of the fall in biodiversity at the global level: loss of 70% of vertebrates in the last 50 years and nearly a million species threatened with extinction in the coming years. Europe is not spared, insect populations are collapsing and the number of birds has fallen by 25% in 40 years. In this context of crisis, the European Union has launched its biodiversity strategy entitled “Bringing nature back into our lives”. It was adopted by the European Parliament in 2021.

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To capture and store carbon quickly and cheaply, the European Union's strategy consists in maintaining or restoring natural areas (soils, forests, wetlands, peatlands, etc.) and biodiversity as much as possible. The European Union is investing in solutions based on the preservation of nature. For example, it is the European LIFE Fund that finances the Life Anthropofens program in Hauts-de-France and Wallonia to restore peatlands.

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With regard to agriculture, the Green Deal wants, through its “From farm to table” system, encourage the transition to sustainable agricultural practices maintaining soil and health such as organic farming, agroecology, reducing the use of pesticides.

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The European Green Deal is a real opportunity to reorient the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) representing 1/3 of the EU budget towards a policy that can meet the objectives of the Green Deal.

Even though the new 2023-2027 CAP, which came into force on 1 January 2023, was supposed to be an essential element of the agricultural component of the Green Deal (and even the main tool allowing this sector to achieve the objectives), it is clear that its impact is widely contested by NGOs and many specialists who criticise its lack of environmental ambition.

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The European Green Deal 4 years after its launch: where do we stand?

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The Green Deal is progressing! Focus on concrete advances
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The Green Deal is progressing, especially in the last two years! Over 50 guidelines have been reformed and it continues to be expanded over time.

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Here are some of the most significant legislative advances:

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• Reforming and strengthening the Community carbon market : the platform for trading GHG emissions quotas (The Emissions Trading System 1 or ETS1) is becoming even more restrictive and its field of application is extended to the aviation and maritime sectors. A second carbon market, this time impacting individuals (for road fuel and heating) will be implemented from 2027.

• Creation of a carbon border tax : last April, MEPs voted in favor of a “carbon tax”, also called the “carbon border adjustment mechanism” (MACF). The aim is to penalize industrial imports whose production emits a high CO2 emission (aluminium, cement, steel, etc.) and to ensure the competitiveness of European manufacturers by raising the carbon price. The mechanism will come into force definitively in 2026.

• Creation of a Social Climate Fund as early as 2026 : this Fund, endowed with nearly 87 billion euros, will make it possible to help the most vulnerable to join this energy transition without suffering too much from it. Integrating the private road transport sector and the housing sector into the European carbon market risks hitting the least well-off households hard and increasing social inequalities. To rectify this, the Social Fund will in particular be able to help finance the purchase of an electric vehicle or the renovation of the homes of people strongly affected by the rise in the price of fossil fuels. It is also expected that this Fund will help finance the development of charging infrastructures and public transport over the longer term.

• Adoption of the first part of the “Adjustment to Objective 55” package in March 2023. Among the important advances:
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• The end of cars with internal combustion engines in 2035 is finally completed despite an initial blockade by Germany.
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• Provisional agreement has been reached on the renewable energy directive aiming to increase the share of renewable energies in the EU's overall energy consumption to 42.5% by 2030 (almost double the current share).

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Another important step forward, in February 2023, the EU launched The European Green Deal industrial plan entitled “A Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Era of Carbon Neutrality”.

This plan is based on 4 pillars: Establishing a more flexible, clear and predictable legislative framework, simplifying and accelerating access to finance, improving the skills of workers in low-carbon innovations, and facilitating international cooperation.

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All the advances are available on the European Commission's dedicated page.

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The main obstacles and the contested texts

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The Green Deal is an ambitious approach that requires close cooperation between the various Member States of the European Union and between the various institutions that make up the European Union. It is clear that finding a consensus at 27 is not an easy task!

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Here are some examples of blockages:

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• The revision of the Reach regulation on chemical substances came out of the Commission's work programme in 2023. due to the difficulties of the industrial sector in coping with rising energy prices.

• Measures to reduce pesticides are criticized because they would have too much impact for some Member States and the project is constantly being postponed. Because of these blockages, some believe that “the agricultural green deal will not take place”.
• Germany initially blocked the text providing for the end of thermal cars.

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Are the objectives set by the European Green Deal really achievable?

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On some aspects of the Green Deal, several major obstacles remain:

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The ambition of certain measures : in parallel with the difficulty of finding a consensus at 27, it is clear that there are some texts whose ambition seems insufficient to really achieve the objectives. For certain sectors such as mobility or the circular economy, the Green Deal remains quite unclear as to the measures to be put in place.

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Obstacles to the implementation of the plan : the success of the European Green Deal lies in its concrete implementation, even though it is the most uncertain part: difficulty in finding a consensus at 27, trilogue negotiations, blocking between the various Member States on certain texts etc. In France, Emmanuel Macron has just asked for a regulatory break for the green industry, a decision strongly criticized by environmental protection associations and trade unions.

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To illustrate the difficulty in implementing this plan, let's take the example of the key freight transport sector. To decarbonize this sector that emits a lot of GHGs, there is a long way to go. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the demand for road freight should double by 2050, even though this sector should ideally reach 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

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Financing the Green Deal : the Institute of Climate Economy (I4CE) says that to follow the trajectory set by the National Low Carbon Strategy, much more money for the climate should be invested in France. According to Greenpeace France, the rescue of polluting industries makes it difficult to achieve the objectives set by the Green Deal and the funding allocated is not at all up to the level of the plan, which further limits its implementation.

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Although this Green Deal is far from perfect, it is clear that the EU's ambition and the progress made constitute an unprecedented mobilization at the European Union level on the subject of climate. To be continued...

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