high level grouPS

The contextual conditions for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement have been uprooted by the war in Ukraine. The European Union has put forward ambitious and binding objectives for decarbonization, with no similar level in the world. As part of the European Green Deal strategy, the EU intends to reduce its net GHG emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990; by 2050, it intends to become the first climate-neutral continent. Such objectives are being enshrined in horizontal and sectorial legislation and will therefore require an overall transformation of the European economy, in all activity sectors and all countries, hence leading to an unprecedented redirection of capital flows and investments since the industrial revolution. The social consequences of this transition also require deep thinking and, given the existing division of competences, synchronized policy making between the EU and its member states.

The question of security of energy supply is also at the top of the political agenda: can it, and how, be combined with the search for clean energy as well. There seems to be an ambiguity at the heart of EU policy making which may be helpful in the short-term, but which does not constitute a long-term coherent strategy which will safeguard climate, diversity of supply at affordable prices, and resilience.

This affects not only manufacturing and households, but also transport and thus global value chains.
The ripple effects of this unilateral change of the postwar status quo will be multiple and the risks for the global competitiveness of European companies are high. Is Europe going to sleepwalk into lower standards of living? 

This HLG is chaired by Andris Piebalgs, former EU Commissioner for Energy.