A Green Recovery for Europe?
The global COVID-19 pandemic is without question a crisis like no other in recent history. It is both a public health threat with significant human loss, and an economic crisis with a still-uncertain reach and impact. Against this unprecedented context, the European Union is seeking to mitigate the effects of the outbreak, while at the same time striving towards the sense of policy normality needed to restore citizens’ and industry’s trust.
The question now is if, as some propose, the European Commission will have to sideline its flagship initiatives like the Green Deal to focus solely on economic recovery — or if it will press on with these programmes as catalysts for sustainable growth and recovery.
The Commission seems keen on pushing for an economic recovery plan that is based on keeping the same level of climate ambition, speeding up digitalisation and working towards a fully circular economy. In other words, it is set to frame the European Green Deal, European Industrial Strategy and the Circular Economy Plan as enabling factors for a speedy growth.
Recent statements by the Commission’s chief political figures, namely President Ursula von der Leyen and Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, have reaffirmed the intention to capitalise on the potential of the Green Deal to act as a new economic model for Europe’s energy and climate transition. To this end, President von der Leyen recently stressed that the EU’s revised budget for 2021–2027, which will be the cornerstone of the “Marshall Fund for Europe”, will strongly promote Green Deal goals as a means of long-term economic recovery and growth.
It has also been suggested that much of the EU’s future economic recovery efforts should include climate conditionality — commitments required from companies seeking economic support from the EU and its Member States to change their business models to see clear reductions of CO2 and other types of emissions. This trend has been seconded by the European Parliament, which also recently called for a recovery package with the EU Green Deal and digital transformation at its core in order to kick-start the economy, improve its resilience and create jobs that are ready for the ecological transition.
However, in reality, policy delays are to be expected. In fact, the Commission has already been obliged to review its timeline for delivery of Green Deal proposals delaying some to next year and leading to a new prioritisation of issues.
The Commission’s prioritisation of certain dossiers, such as the revision of 2030 climate targets and the focus on an upcoming Revised Sustainable Finance Strategy scheduled for autumn this year, is highly indicative of the path that the Commission is taking — one of a sustainable economic transition.
ADAPTING STAKEHOLDER NARRATIVES
Industry and other stakeholders have already taken note of this stance, as reflected in the creation of the European Alliance for a Green Recovery led by the Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment Pascal Canfin. Over 180 Members of the European Parliament, national ministers, trade unions, NGOs, think tanks and companies have gathered around this initiative calling for the EU to prioritise fighting against climate change in the EU’s upcoming economy recovery plan.
Similarly, a number of European and international companies are not waiting to see what place climate will have in the economic recovery plan, but are coming forward and committing to drastic emissions cuts and revision of their economic models — be they in the energy, transport or other sectors.
As the EU and national capitals roll out new financial and economic stimuli and measures to reinvigorate ailing economies, Europe is entering a time when a return to business as usual will not be sufficient. Prudent stakeholder advocacy should capitalise on this seismic shift in politics and economics by showing real changes to their economic models, to fully benefit from the opportunities that will be given to them as part of Europe’s transition to carbon neutrality.
In other words, while we might be operating in a new political and economic reality, stakeholders around Europe — including those who had been initially reluctant to commit to the Green Deal — will have to fully adapt their narratives to demonstrate their sectorial pathways for the ecological transition, or risk being sidelined in discussions on post-Covid-19 crisis recovery.
Edited by Kate Baddeley
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