Four years after COP21, the UN Climate Action Summit is to define the means to implement the Paris Agreement and layout concrete measures that the States and civil society will apply and continue to use to counter climate change.
Ursula von der Leyen’s ambitious plan to counter climate change has benefited from a favourable political and social context, which the Union must now turn into an action plan. Announcements related to reforming the ECB, transforming the EIB and attaining carbon neutrality are sources of great disagreement among EU States. They will have to trust the benefits of the Fund for a fair transition to trigger long-term ecological transition on their territories. Subordinating free-trade agreements to the respect of committing to the Paris Agreement and implementing a border carbon tax represents a unique opportunity for the EU to change the course of international trade relations. The new European Commission lies on a fragile balance, between legal trade obligations and the respect of the WTO’s rules, between the protection of the environment and faith in “sustainable” growth. From a political point of view, the Green Deal carries the promise of a wideranging alliance of European so-called “government” parties but also points to possible tensions within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The quest for consensus still depends on the States’ will to agree on acceptable levels of constraint and paces of reform.
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