Topic Centers

European Green Deal

Making the EU climate neutral is the defining challenge over the next decades. The aim of the European Green Deal is to transform the EU into a modern society with a resource-efficient, sustainable and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use.

Overview

Overview

In December 2019, the European Commission presented the "European Green Deal'' to meet the challenges of climate change. The Commission's strategic concept contains specific targets and a cross-sectoral action plan for the future direction of a sustainable, competitive European economy. The draft legislation and strategies that have been adopted since then already indicate that the Green Deal will fundamentally change the European economy. The overall goal of the Green Deal is to gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

To reaffirm its commitment, at the End of June 2021, as part of the implementation of the Green Deal, the EU Parliament and Council adopted the European Climate Law. The European Climate Law commits the EU to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and to reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared with 1990. The European Commission's "Fit for 55"-package presented on July 14, 2021 sets out the instruments the EU will use to achieve the new climate target for 2030. In twelve legislative proposals, the EU determines how our economy and society is fundamentally transformed for a fair, green and prosperous future.

Climate neutrality requires, on the one hand, the reduction of all greenhouse gases currently emitted and, on the other hand, the compensation of unavoidable emissions through natural storage, e.g. in forests.

To achieve the goal of climate neutrality, extensive investments are required, which the European Commission has specified in the ''Investment Plan for a Sustainable Europe''. The plan aims to generate investments of at least 1 trillion euros over the next ten years. This requires interaction between the EU budget, member states and private actors.

In order to increase the incentives for investment, the Commission plans to privilege investments under financial and tax law.

A uniform framework for the classification of environmentally sustainable activities is also to be created, and the pursuit of long-term ecological goals is to be more strongly integrated into the corporate governance framework of companies.


Publications

News

Important product safety regulation changes on the horizon for businesses in the UK

The new UK Government has unveiled the Product Safety and Metrology Bill, a critical piece of legislation that will affect all businesses involved in manufacturing, importing, and selling...

News

The ever growing increase of EU and UK product safety related-requirements and enforcement activity

Even more new laws?In recent years, the EU and UK have significantly heightened their focus on product safety requirements. Just a few examples from the EU include the new European...

News

Sustainable products as the norm: the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation effective now

Protecting our planet by making products on the EU market more sustainable and circular: This is the main objective of the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation...

News

UK / EU / International ESG Regulation monthly round-up – June 2024

June 2024 was another busy month for ESG regulation both in the EU and internationally. In the EU, the ESAs have published their final reports on greenwashing in the financial...

News

ESG Market Alert - June 2024

In this alert, we provide a round-up of the latest developments in ESG for UK corporates.

Insights and Analysis

Blended Finance – themes from our London Climate Action Week roundtable

We share some of the themes which came up at roundtable co-hosted with the Green Finance Institute during London Climate Action Week on the use of blended finance for purposes of scaling...

Loading data