The Environmental Union

BLISS was it in that pre-Lehman dawn to be alive. But to be European was very heaven. Before the world economy turned turtle in 2008, the European Union presented an attractive face to the world. Its scepticism about military force and love of global rules was a welcome counterweight to the cowboy unilateralism of George Bush’s America. The issue of climate change presented a golden opportunity for Europe to flex its soft power, economic muscle and high-minded internationalism for the good of mankind. Perhaps, mused some, the EU should rebrand itself the “Environmental Union.”

The crash, and the devastation unleashed across the euro zone, put paid to all that. But the environment is back. At their most recent summit, on October 23rd and 24th, Europe’s heads of government agreed on a climate and energy package that obliges the EU to ensure that by 2030 its emissions of greenhouse gases will be at least 40% lower than in 1990. To achieve that goal, each of the 28 members will have to meet its own legally binding target (these remain to be set). The deal succeeds an earlier one, signed in 2007, under which the EU agreed to a 20% emissions cut by 2020. It is supposed to pave the way to a reduction worth 80-95% by 2050.