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14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era

  • Jeffrey Rosamond
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The EU under Strain?
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch The EU under Strain?

Abstract

The European Green Deal (EGD) and its European Climate Law have raised EU climate ambition to new heights by making the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 legally binding. However, the action plan was proposed in times of crisis, and competing economic, health, and geopolitical emergencies risk undermining the EU’s climate objectives. In this chapter, I situate climate policy and the EGD against the backdrop of the polycrisis. I argue that crisis-era governance provides both prospects and pitfalls for EU actors to advance climate ambition. This chapter proceeds in several steps. First, I provide an overview of the EGD, the European Climate Law, and the Fit for 55 Package, discussing whether they mark a break from previous incremental steps forward. Next, I outline crisis trends that risk derailing the EU’s climate ambition. Thirdly, I demonstrate the key role that each of the EU’s institutions have played in facilitating the development of the EGD and the challenges they face to maintain momentum in crisis contexts. Finally, this chapter focuses on the COVID-19 crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, showing that crises provide both opportunities and challenges for the EU to stay the course on advancing the goals of the EGD. I argue that actions like tying climate objectives to economic recovery and energy security plans demonstrate that the EU may have adapted to working within crisis contexts to maintain climate ambitions. However, this hopeful trend is fragile as economic and energy hardships risk exacerbating east-west member state divisions on climate policy, thereby giving the EU institutions less room to advance radical climate action.

Abstract

The European Green Deal (EGD) and its European Climate Law have raised EU climate ambition to new heights by making the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 legally binding. However, the action plan was proposed in times of crisis, and competing economic, health, and geopolitical emergencies risk undermining the EU’s climate objectives. In this chapter, I situate climate policy and the EGD against the backdrop of the polycrisis. I argue that crisis-era governance provides both prospects and pitfalls for EU actors to advance climate ambition. This chapter proceeds in several steps. First, I provide an overview of the EGD, the European Climate Law, and the Fit for 55 Package, discussing whether they mark a break from previous incremental steps forward. Next, I outline crisis trends that risk derailing the EU’s climate ambition. Thirdly, I demonstrate the key role that each of the EU’s institutions have played in facilitating the development of the EGD and the challenges they face to maintain momentum in crisis contexts. Finally, this chapter focuses on the COVID-19 crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, showing that crises provide both opportunities and challenges for the EU to stay the course on advancing the goals of the EGD. I argue that actions like tying climate objectives to economic recovery and energy security plans demonstrate that the EU may have adapted to working within crisis contexts to maintain climate ambitions. However, this hopeful trend is fragile as economic and energy hardships risk exacerbating east-west member state divisions on climate policy, thereby giving the EU institutions less room to advance radical climate action.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110790337-015

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
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Heruntergeladen am 27.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110790337-015/html?lang=de
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