In her opening remarks, Dr. Grabbe outlined the critical role of the European Union in facilitating the climate transition within its member states and throughout the rest of the world, specifically through the advancement of the initiatives included in the European Green Deal.

She noted that public attitudes towards a climate transition have shifted. Although the EU has pursued environmental policies for decades, they did not fundamentally change the European economy because they treated environmental impact as merely an externality. The entrenched interests of industries in powerful member-states successfully fought back many far-reaching proposals from the Commission.

This changed in 2019, when voters—especially younger voters—and political parties alike brought unprecedented pressure for prioritizing green initiatives during the European Parliament elections. When the European Green Deal was adopted the same year, it signified an fundamental upscaling in the range and ambition of climate and environmental policies at the EU level. In fact, Grabbe posits the Green Deal is one of the most ambitious policy frameworks any advanced industrial economy has tried to implement. No other country or region on the planet has attempted to prevent biodiversity loss, curb carbon emissions, and halt environmental depletion through all of its policy instruments and at a similar scale to the Green Deal.

These goals will have implications not only for Europe, but also for the rest of the world. First, the EU's first-mover position imbues the Green Deal with substantial amounts of shaping power; where it succeeds, it has a high chance of inspiring governments elsewhere to shape similar policy frameworks and solutions, but where it fails, it could provide a reason for countries not to act towards advancing their climate transitions.

The EU can exercise financial and regulatory power, as well as normative power to establish new global norms which affect the climate transitions of other governments and markets. The EU can for instance, help set the standards for what qualifies as green and is already demanding transparency from firms that will force them to substantiate vague commitments into changed practices. This will ultimately diminish the prevalence of greenwashing in the private sector, and introduce new metrics for what counts as sustainable and ethical production processes. In other words, the effective establishment of green standards by the EU can drive an uplift in the standards of manufacturers and governments all over the world.

Grabbe highlights how economic policy's primary focus is now shifting from a predominant focus on efficiency and growth towards resilience, owing to Russia's war, the aftermath of COVID and rising prices. If the EU succeeds in moving to a circular economy, that will reinforce its economic resilience and change its international and trade relationships. She also emphasizes how resource use needs to be at the forefront of climate action, and for biodiversity loss to be mitigated.

In her concluding remarks, however, Grabbe reminds us to consider the "dark side" of the Green Deal. Europe offshores dirty production, as it is a large consumer of imports produced using large carbon emissions, low environmental protection, and exploitative labor practices elsewhere in the world. So far, the Green Deal has not taken measures to remedy this and faces criticism from the Global South for Green colonialism. It is critical for the EU's external policies to catch up with the Green Deal, Grabbe states, so that countries exporting to EU markets, especially those that are developing, can also make progress in their climate transitions and contribute to collective global action.



Full Audio:

European and Eurasian Studies Series

hosted by Professor Nina Hall


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Heather Grabbe is Senior Adviser to the Open Society Foundations.

Grabbe is a political scientist and advocate for democratic pluralism and open societies. She was ranked highly among "the women who shape Brussels" by Politico, gave a TED talk on the importance of critical thinking and mindful engagement with post-truth politics, and has written recently on how climate change and technology are affecting the quality of democracy and economic and social justice.

From 2004 to 2009, she was senior advisor to the then European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn, responsible for EU policy on the Balkans and Turkey. Previously, she was deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, where she wrote extensively on EU external policies and enlargement. She also conducted academic research at the European University Institute (Florence), Chatham House (London), Oxford and Birmingham universities, and taught at the London School of Economics.