AGENDA 2050

Can Europe Become Climate Neutral By 2050?

The European Commission plays an important role in promoting European interests that extend beyond the national interests of individual member states. The climate change challenge represents one of the most pressing contemporary global crises. Agenda 2050 on sustainable development is a bold and ambitious vision set forth by the European Commission for a climate neutral Europe that may also serve as a normative model globally

Based on the international debate on climate change dating back to the early 1990s and moving forward, the European Union and its member states have sought to pursue the role of international leader on sustainable development. The international political process of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (COP21) and the 2015 special United Nations Summit resulted in the EU declaring a climate neutral Europe by 2050. The European Commission Communication A Clean Planet for all—A European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy, was endorsed by the European Council in 2019 (Finnish Government, 2019).

The EU’s ambitions on climate change and sustainable development have been contextualised by numerous challenges. The power politics of China and Russia on security and economy, the global rise of emerging economic powers, the economic and financial recession, migration, Brexit and right-wing populism have all led to polarisation within and between EU member states, bringing into question the overall international power of the EU.

The European Commission plays a unique and important formal role within the EU as an embedded driving force to promote European norms and values beyond the interests of individual member states. The Commission’s role is to act as the promoter of the European common good and to transform challenges into a window of opportunity during times of crises. In this context, Agenda 2050 is a bold and ambitious vision of the European Commission for a climate neutral Europe, but it may also serve as a normative model for the rest of the world.

One point that’s often missing in the climate change debate is the role of governance institutions in promoting sustainable development. In Europe, the European Commission pursues the role of promoting the overall interests of the EU in relation to its member states by proposing European laws, safeguarding EU treaties by ensuring that member states follow EU legislation, acting as an executive body to handle policies and the annual budget, and by representing the EU in external relations to third party states. The European Commission is also in an institutional relation to a large group of EU member states that pursue a high level of capabilities. The role of the European Commission, as an engine driving development within the EU, could therefore be very influential provided member states are convinced to act together to tackle climate change.

The European Commission has the formal role of acting as a policy entrepreneur within EU structures and with the duty to represent European norms and values beyond individual member states’ interests. The European Commissions’ track-record of the 1990s and early 2000s shows how the Commission has also managed to place democratic, market-oriented and social issues on the official agenda, compelling some scholars to argue for an EU normative power. More recently, the European Commission has also begun to push for sustainable development within EU member states. The EU began to push for sustainable development in the

Treaty of Amsterdam, with the objective of promoting a European socioeconomic model of economic growth, price stability, full employment and social inclusiveness, along with protection of the environment. Since then, sustainable development has been mainstreamed into EU policies, legislations, norms and values, while the European Commission has stressed its ambition to become a frontrunner on promoting and protecting sustainable development.

On 11th December 2019, the European Commission presented the Communication ‘The European Green Deal’ as a guiding roadmap to further promote sustainable development. The Commission highlighted the ambition to become the leading actor in the world and for Europe to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The Commission stressed climate change and related climate and environmental challenges as being fundamental to humankind, but also how such global and European challenge could become a window of opportunity for European transformation and progress (European Commission, 2019). The Commission declared Agenda 2050 as the roadmap to making Europe a climate neutral continent. Again, the Commission called on all European actors in the political, economic and civil society domains to commit to such a European path and come together to transform into a prosperous and cleaner Europe. Agenda 2050 included several crucial strategic areas in energy efficiency, the deployment of renewables, clean and safe mobility to achieve a climate neutral Europe.

Agenda 2050 addressed the nexus between the contemporary challenges of climate change and socioeconomic growth by highlighting the strategic importance of innovations and technological solutions to become a dynamic and greener economy. The Commission specifically urged the re-directing of private capital to sustainable investments, setting up one classification system on sustainable economic activities, regulating and legislating on low-carbon benchmarks, establishing a carbon pricing system, taxing environmental impacts and increasing levels of investment in research and innovation to promote zero-carbon solutions for a greener economy.

Agenda 2050 also set out how a greener economy will create new jobs and employment opportunities, but how such sustainable development in the economic sector will, in the short run, provide challenges and changes in societies that have been dependent on coal- and carbon-intensive growth. Europe’s industrialised regions will see fundamental structural changes, with such a transformation set to impact societies and citizens. It is therefore crucial for the EU to be ready to mitigate possible negative effects on citizens and societies when developing into a green economy. Such mitigation should include increased support to social protection systems, education, training and lifelong learning.

Agenda 2050 sheds light on the importance of including and empowering European citizens in the transformation to a greener economy. The European Commission stresses that citizens are consumers and therefore powerful actors in the process of sustaina-

Agenda 2050 is a bold and ambitious vision of the European Commission for a climate neutral Europe, but it may also serve as a normative model for the rest of the world

ble development to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy. Consumers could, through the purchasing of sustainable products and services, exert strategic pressure on companies and industries to be part of the climate-adjusted changes.

Sustainable development is an important norm within the EU-system of governance and is pushed for by the Commission in all recent strategic Communications, such as Europe 2020 and Agenda 2050. Europe 2020—A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth represented a strategic response to the global recession of 2008 and moving forward, calling for a European partnership between EU institutions, member states, regional and local authorities and the private sector to address the economic and social crisis. It represents the European partnership aimed at promoting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Almost every objective set out in the Europe 2020 strategy had been fulfilled by 2020. This required serious transformative reforms within EU member states.

The EU now faces further reforms to meet the objectives set out in Agenda 2050. The role of the European Commission must remain the same as in previous work undertaken for Europe 2020. The EU Commission plays a crucial role within the EU if the EU is to become a normative, sustainable power in 2050. There are, however, both economic and political hindrances that are addressed in numerous academic studies. One economic challenge is the long-term economic recession that hit Europe in 2008 and beyond. This crisis challenged the EU, together with its individual member states, regions and communities, and the socioeconomic damage is still troublesome across Europe, in the form of high unemployment rates and social marginalisation in many EU countries. The economic crisis required immediate political and financial assistance to EU member states from other EU member states, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The crisis also highlighted the challenge of Europe’s economic structural weakness in a low average growth rate, low levels of investments in research and development, limited digitalisation and a weak business environment with serious obstacles in finding risk capital. The economic crisis shed light on the challenge of moving away from the narrow focus on development in terms of growth and jobs by addressing rising public concerns over clean energy, climate change and the sustainable use of resources that allow Europe to transform into a sustainable carbon-free economy. In times of economic dire straits, rising nationalism is also a major concern for the European Commission. A decade of economic recession has led to increased economic nationalism and reduced interest in helping out among member states. This is a concern for the Commission, which seeks solutions that extend beyond the individual interests of member states.

Another challenge that’s often cited in the literature is political in the complex system of EU governance. The Commission has continued to call for stronger cohesiveness within the Union to act as a unified social and economic actor with improved steering and coordination of member states’ policies and reforms. It has also been argued that the EU member states must implement essential policies to promote sustainable development, but that requires the overcoming of member-states’ differences in political cultures and disparities regarding socioeconomic resources, knowhow, productivity and growth levels. There have also been discussions on the capacity of the EU to implement coherent actions to avoid member states’ safeguarding their own national interest to the detriment of others. These economic and political hindrances are real and must be overcome by the Commission if it is to realise its role as provider of the European common good in a sustainable continent by 2050.

Sustainable development has been mainstreamed into EU policies, legislations, norms and values, while the European Commission has stressed its ambition to become a frontrunner on promoting and protecting sustainable development