The European New Deal - and what we can learn from it
- Marilene Pavan
- Jul 9, 2020
- 3 min read
The European New Deal, from 2019, is a roadmap, a roadmap with actions to lead EU into a fair and prosperous society, with no GHG emissions in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. The reasons behind these ideas are mainly to protect the health and well-being of citizens from environment-related risks and impacts.
But why is so important to understand it? Because policy changes things. Nothing is more powerful to change the status quo than strong policies. Policies quite some times go against cultural beliefs, market forces and interests to guarantee the common well being. Policies that lead, or have the potential to lead, to meaningful transformations serve as an inspiration - and influence - both locally and globally. That's the importance. Meaningful, structural changes for problems as urgent as climate change.
The key actions described in the new deal roadmap are clearly described, with a timetable with the deadlines. Obvious right? Not really. Some countries (a lot actually) still struggle to implement meaningful changes in face of very long, descriptive, bureaucratic, and dubious policies that may also lack enforcement, oversight, and follow ups.
Furthermore, policies are the ideal instrument available to create opportunity, prosperity, and equality. Climate change will accentuate the already huge disparities, hitting harder the less fortunate members of our society, in scale. To avoid that, these are the 10 pillars of the European GND:
1) Meeting the scale of the challenge; 2) Pressing idle resources into public service; 3) Empowering citizens & their communities; 4) Guaranteeing decent jobs; 5) Raising the standard of living; 6) Entrenching equality; 7) Investing in the future; 8) Ending the dogma of endless growth; 9) Supporting climate justice AROUND THE WORLD; 10) Committing to action TODAY
Why the capital letters (by me) on 9 and 10? Because, though I am writing about the European GND, this is a global matter, crisis. We need the whole world working today. One out of this, and it will affect us all. That's why the world will need this type of leadership. It is ambitious: from food to transportation everything must change, and fast. It is costly: new technologies, disruptive changes, and incentives will demand massive investments. It is estimated that the EU GND is going to cost around 1 trillion Euros to be successfully implemented (the biggest share coming from the EU budget, and the rest from national governments and private sector). Some experts say that the amount necessary might be actually 3x this initial estimation.
EU is offering strong policies, massive investments, and leadership to drive global change. In theory, everybody backs the plan. But reality might be very different, country to country, society to society. A severe recession, different priorities, and lack of investment might likely jeopardize the plans. A transition to renewables, however, has to be (correctly) informed and seen as an opportunity for economy recovery and jobs creation, other than only expenditure in something (climate change) that is not THAT visible, obvious for some people.
On the other hand, the investment, incentives for cheaper clean solutions, the policies, the continent economic importance (that might drive change by trade, for example), and the 30-year period to adapt makes it feasible, not an "activist dream". And, also very important, it will serve as a clear example of successes to be followed and flaws to be avoided. European GND could go global. And that is, my friends, its main merit.
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