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If countries around the world (and in the EU-27 too) want massive support for green energy and climate mitigation policies, they must connect their strategies to daily life: i.e. with affordable homes, cleaner air, reliable (and free!) public transport, etc. Opponents frame the green transition as a cost; but it’s the smartest ever investment in healthier, fairer and, generally, better lives. The “climate future” won’t be achieved with fear, but with fairness: such optimism isn’t naïve: it has to be part of national strategies, and the green agenda has had numerous winning stories.
Background
The EU’s State of the Energy Union Report is published annually to take stock of the EU’s progress towards the objectives of the Energy Union made the previous year and is accompanied by a series of reports covering different aspects of the climate and energy transition. Today one of them is published: the Climate Action Progress Report.
The first part of the State of the Energy Union Report outlines measures taken to implement the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, to lower energy costs, attract investment, and make the energy system more resilient to crises. Building on Member States progress reports, the second part analyses the state of play in the implementation of the Energy Union in all its five dimensions. The last part is forward looking, paving the way to decisive actions to complete the Energy Union and prepare the climate and energy policy framework for the decade ahead.
The Climate Action Progress Report shows progress towards the EU’s emission reduction targets, covering actual (historic) emissions and projected future emissions for the EU as a whole and for every EU Member State. It also includes information on different climate policy areas, EU legislative progress, climate finance and adaptation.
More on the “State of the energy union report 2025” in: https://energy.ec.europa.eu/publications/state-energy-union-report-2025_en
Actually, the so-called “nature positive economy” could unlock 395 million jobs and provide more than $10 trillion in business opportunities by 2030. Presently, the climate mitigation and nature protection actions are evolving, and so are the mindsets of modern altering political economies: i.e. from already transforming markets to restoring ecosystems and sustainability.
Reference to: https://www.weforum.org/videos/people_planet_progress/?emailType=Strategic%20Intelligence%20Weekly&ske=MDAxNjgwMDAwMDdQUEl3QUFP
Ten years after Paris…
Ten years ago this month, in Paris, the US and Europe led the world to a historic climate mitigation’s agreement to limit the planet’s dangerous warming. The Paris Agreement changed everything: it brought climate change into our politics, our media, our culture. Some decades feel like centuries. Since then, the US has quit the deal twice (each time Trump steps in), while the EU built its own Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 – a plan now under attack from vested interests and the far-right parties. One sometimes wonders whether the Paris Agreement would be ever possible…
The EU member states’ governments have just agreed on the 2035-40 climate targets; with the US on fossil programs, the EU looks as the world’s green campaigner. However, the EU’s agreed strategic goals do not stand up to scientific scrutiny, which calls for at least a 90% domestic emissions reduction. Thus, the target is full of holes: states’ governments want an 85% cut, padded with 5% offsets outside Europe – not to mention a “laundry list of flexibilities”: i.e. revisable targets, sector loopholes (in agriculture), and lower ambition if nature fails to absorb enough carbon. In fact, such “flexibility” looks like a free pass to fail.
The EU states proposed postponing the entry of buildings and transport into the carbon market (ETS2) until 2028; the ETS2 are one of the few tools that could cut emissions where progress is too slow, this is yet another gift to laggards, another cost for everyone else.
The target now moves to trilogues – informal negotiations – between the EU Parliament, Commission, and Council. The first will define its position next week, and it already looks stronger than the initial texts from the governments. The Commission’s stance is stronger, as the EU needs mid-term targets that bring clarity: “flexibility” should never pave the way to failure.
COP30: new dialogue’s facets
This week, over 300 mayors and tens of global leaders gathered at COP30 in Brazil to launch a global alliance for cooler, more resilient cities, as well as better climate for humanity.
During three decades, the global community is “trying” to combine old and new priorities: to pursue the states “to focus” on updated Nationally Determined Contributions, financing resilience and just “green transitions”, amend food system’s transformation, as well as “to reignite global collaboration in closing the gap” towards the 1.5°C global climate goal.
COP30 introduced a new concept – “Global Mutirão” – in the Tupi-Guarani language meaning “collective efforts”, means practical mobilization of “civil society organizations worldwide to integrate local actions with global climate goals”. As the British LSE notes, the global mutirão approach “represents an excellent opportunity to reflect on the impact… and potential for faith-inspired climate advocacy going forward, but sustaining this approach will require the explicit and continued inclusion of faith”.
Source: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2025/11/cop30s-mutirao-is-an-opportunity-to-bring-faith-and-climate-policy-closer-together/
For our inquisitive readers we recommend the latest LSE Review of Books newsletter, sharing reviews of the latest books across the social sciences: e.g. the following reviews on books exploring climate action and green growth: a) “The Growth Story of the 21st Century”, by Nick Stern which proposes a vision of sustainable growth for climate action; b) “The Climate Diplomat”, by Peter Betts – a top climate negotiator’s insight into two decades of COP summits; and c) Jamie Wang’s “Reimagining the More-Than-Human City”, which unpicks Singapore’s reputation as a paragon of green capitalism.
We will follow the work of COP30 and inform the readers on its consequences for the world and the European Union.