The European Green Deal is the EU’s response to the current global climate-related and environmental challenges. According to the European Commission’s communication of December 2019, it is:
a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use.
The communication on the European Green Deal sets out in detail how the Commission plans to implement this vast project. It paves the way for the first European Climate Law, the proposal for which was adopted in March 2020 to ‘enshrine the 2050 climate neutrality objective in legislation’. In March 2020, the Commission also adopted an EU industrial strategy to address the twin challenge of the green and digital transformations, and presented a new circular economy action plan with measures to encourage businesses to offer, and to help consumers to choose, reusable, durable and repairable products.
At the European Council meeting of 11 and 12 December 2019, the heads of state or government adopted conclusions that confirm the objective of achieving a climate-neutral EU by 2050, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. While the Council underlined that the transition to climate neutrality will bring significant opportunities in terms of economic growth, new business models and new jobs, it recognised the need to put in place an enabling framework ‘to ensure a … socially balanced and fair transition’. To this end, the Council approved the creation of the Just Transition Mechanism to provide tailored support to the regions and sectors most affected (see below).
Since the first initiatives taken as part of the Green Deal, numerous proposals have been adopted. For instance, on 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a set of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. According to the Commission, ‘achieving these emission reductions in the next decade is crucial to Europe becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and making the European Green Deal a reality’.
In its communication on the Green Deal, the Commission asserts that the European Pillar of Social Rights ‘will guide action in ensuring that no one is left behind’. To meet this aim, the Commission has set up the Just Transition Mechanism, a key tool to ensure that the transition towards a climate-neutral economy happens in a fair way, supporting regions most exposed to transition challenges, such as regions relying on fossil fuels and high-emission industries. It will provide targeted support to help mobilise around €55 billion over the period 2021–2027 to alleviate the socioeconomic impact of the transition. It includes a new Just Transition Fund of €19.2 billion in current prices, which is expected to mobilise around €25.4 billion in investments. The fund will invest in specific projects that will generate employment in less carbon-intensive industries and help to absorb redundancies from the reduction in size or closure of the exiting factories or plants in the regions. It will involve backing productive investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, the creation of new firms, research and innovation, environmental rehabilitation, clean energy, up- and reskilling of workers, job-search assistance and active inclusion of jobseekers programmes.
The adoption of these policies has been warmly received by non-governmental organisations and the European social partners. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which is calling for ‘measures to ensure there is a socially just transition to a green economy for all workers’, is of the opinion that the Commission ‘has taken this on board’. Speaking for employers, BusinessEurope stresses that it is ‘essential to connect the Green Deal with a strong industrial strategy that mobilises the hundreds of billions of euros of investments needed’.
Eurofound (2022), European Green Deal, European Industrial Relations Dictionary, Dublin
https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/european-industrial-relations-dictionary/european-green-deal