One of the few positive outcomes of the Covid-19 lock-down has been the clear skies, rise in air quality and drop in carbon levels. With the lock-downs easing in much of Europe and governments keen to get their economies back on track, there is at least an acknowledgement that a return to the old ‘normal’ will only lead us further along the path to the next looming catastrophe – that of climate change.
This year, 2020 was supposed to be the year the EU would launch its ambitious plan to tackle the climate crisis. “Today’s the start of a journey. This is Europe’s man on the moon moment.” said European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen describing the European Green Deal back in 2019.
But the European Green Deal - the European Commission’s policy initiatives aimed at making the EU climate neutral by 2050 – is already facing criticism for not going far enough and lacking any real substance. Worse still, European governments provide subsidies to fossil fuel industries under many guises: tax breaks, capacity markets, the Emissions Trading System. Investigate Europe (IE) set out to discover the extent of these subsidies and to understand how the EU – along with the UK, Switzerland and Norway – is sabotaging its own targets.
