This week the EU celebrates its annual ‘Green Week’, in which Europe’s environmental elite gather to congratulate each other on how green they are.
It’s certainly true that the EU claims to be taking the climate crisis seriously, most notably through the European Commission’s flagship European Green Deal. Launched in 2019, the deal embraces virtually every policy area. It proposes to make Europe the first continent to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and the first to deliver a climate law with binding emissions targets.
There’s been very little noise in the media about the deal – possibly because anything to do with the EU is seen to be about as dry as a climate-induced dust storm. But anyone who cares about, well, life on planet Earth, would do well to pay attention. Last year openDemocracy launched our ‘Spotlight on the European Green Deal’ series, to keep the deal under much-needed scrutiny as it’s rolled out.
