Well over half of the way into the first 100 days of the freshly installed European Commission (EC), led by President Ursula von der Leyen, the design and scope of the EU’s much hyped European Green Deal (EGD) is still quite vague. Serious questions loom about the plan’s ability to help Europe hit UN climate targets. Paul Hockenos explains why. Von der Leyen’s bombastic The European Green Deal paper, released shortly after the new Commission’s start, declared to the world that the EU was poised take up the lead in battling climate change. In word, it was arguably the most ambitious package of proposals ever, broadly outlining a mission to transform the EU bloc into a sustainable, ultimately carbon-neutral economy. The agenda of its predecessor Commission, the memorandum underscored, would only slash emissions by 60% by 2050. It vowed to do much better – climate neutrality by 2050, namely zero-net emissions – by ratcheting up emission-reduction commitments and hitting them through an extensive array of green policies and programs. In the era of the EGD, … Continue reading The Clock is Ticking on the EU’s European Green Deal