The european green deal- an empty promise
Since I am in France I came multiple times in touch with the "green deal" proposed by the european Union in 2019 and I informed myself a little bit more about that topic and wanted to share my thoughts on it.
Since Greta Thunberg started the Friday for Future movement, we are more conscious than ever how fragile our existence on this planet is. Before we all knew that we needed to protect our environment but the majority did not realize how urgent the situation is.
Especially the youth is very deeply involved in that topic and showed their willpower and resilience to worldwide governments. Plans and concepts were made, promises were made and also the EU had to react to satisfy the future leaders, politicians and activists.
They came up with the green deal and its main idea to be carbon neutral in 2050. In order to get there they agreed on measurement in multiple categories.
Economy:
The Eu plans to establish a more sustainable way of production. They would like to make stricter laws, so that the production uses less materials and enhance recycling and reproduction
Buildings and renovations: The goal is to rehabilitate twice or even three times as much building as now.
No pollution of the environment: Until 2050 the EU does not longer want to pollute the soil, water and air.
Biodiversity: The EU wants to stop de decline of biodiversity by creating more forests and national parks.
From farm to fork
The “From farm to fork” strategy means to reduce the use of pesticides, dung and antibiotics to increase the nutritional value and quality of the food
Mobility
The EU wants to reduce its carbon pollution and wants to invest more in electronic vehicles and the research of other sustainable fuels. I personally think that the goals that were set are good but I they don´t seem realistic to achieve by 2050 because a lot of different problems are not taken into consideration. First of all I think the goal to reach them in 2050 in too far away. It is important to take action right now in order to prevent us from the worst and I can´t really see that happening right now. The outbreak of the corona virus might have had some positive impact on the environment, because the tourism is at its lowest and some ecosystems had the chance to regenerate themselves. But to be honest, this is not a success at all. Once the majority is vaccinated everything will go back to where it was, and slowly recovering ecosystems will be destroyed once more. Due to the virus politics had to change their priorities and the urgency of protecting our planet from ourselves has taken a back seat.
I also think that the EU could realize these goals only because they are on a global scale a rich collective. Rich countries like the European countries make use of the poor politic structure and money to become more and more rich. For years European plastic trash gets shipped to east south asia, where it gets illegally burnt or flies into the sea and from a European point of view it got recycled. Even within the EU countries, wealth differences are too striking to execute the green deal concept as is. Polish and Greek people can´t afford to care about green energy until 2050 because they have other severe financial problems that need to be sorted out in order to get over the following week, whereas German and French people have the luxury to care enough to start big investments. The green deal does not provide any convincing solutions to overcome the difficuties posed by the wealth deficit.
“If the West is serious about evening out global inequalities (especially going into Covid-19 recovery) then the debt and high-risk premiums of 'the rest' should be considered a global problem. To stop global warming, the world needs to find a truly global financial plan. This means that environmentalists need to think less about electric cars and more about balance sheets in middle-to-low income countries.” (Hürriyet Daily News, 13. February 2021)
In total I don´t believe that the concept of the green deal will work out as is because the deficit of financial power is not being considered, it is not a global concept and seems to be more about reputation and the display of power in a competition of being the pioneer in the field of environmental protection that about the actual urgency to protect the planet and the human race. Even though many people can take action to transform their current lifestyle in to a more conscious and sustainable way of life, a transformation from a political instance is much needed.
These are the sources for my statement, all articels that are definitely worth a read:
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opinion/guven-sak/our-problem-with-the-green-deal-162370
https://www.bruegel.org/2019/11/how-to-make-the-european-green-deal-work/
https://www.euractiv.de/section/energie-und-umwelt/news/die-wichtigsten-punkte-des-neuen-green-deal/
https://www.wochenblatt.com/landwirtschaft/nachrichten/was-bringt-der-green-deal-11939924.html
Pictures:
https://euroace.org/mediaroom/eu-green-deal-a-man-on-the-moon-or-cosy-at-home/eu-green-deal/
https://www.globalinfo.nl/images/stories/nweplaatjes12/europgreendeal.jpg
Duitsland
Frankrijk
