The EU will stick to its world-leading climate goals, the bloc’s economic competitiveness tsar has vowed, even as it prepares to water down some of the green policies to placate the bloc’s ailing industry.
The EU’s Green Deal, an ambitious set of policies aimed at decarbonising the economy, was launched in 2019 but has since come under assault from European companies complaining of high energy prices and stifling overregulation. Capitals are also concerned about moribund economic growth, while Donald Trump’s bonfire of US climate goals has increased calls for the bloc to rethink its entire approach.
“The global reality has evolved, and we may need to think to what extent these things that were there need to be updated,” European Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera told the Financial Times.