The overarching goal of the European Green Deal is for Europe to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent. The EU has set itself a legally binding target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This is codified in the European Climate Law, which also sets an intermediate target of at least a 55% reduction by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

Achieving these ambitious targets requires an economic transformation, one that can only come about if clever policies work in concert to accelerate the pace of change. So how can the EU, its Member States and its citizens pull off this transformation? What changes are needed now and in the coming years? How does the European Green Deal fit into this? What does this mean for young Europeans?

On 6 March 2023, participants joined the webinar hosts Ewa Iwaszuk and Aaron Best from Ecologic Institute and their expert guests Claire Dupont, Professor, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University and Matthias Duwe, Head, Climate at Ecologic Institute. Together, they discussed the central role that climate policy plays in the European Green Deal and explored how policy can spur innovation and reduce net emissions to zero in the European Union. 

The webinar is part of a new webinar series for young people in Europe that Ecologic Institute kick-started in 2022.

We have already produced a podcast episode on the topic that you can listen to ahead of the webinar: https://www.greendealbigdeal.eu/podcast/episode-8/ 

Relevant links and documents:

• Can Current EU Climate Policy Reliably Achieve Climate Neutrality by 2050?
• Legislative Train Schedule

Below you can find the presentations and the video recordings of Matthias Duwe and Claire Dupont.

• Presentation by Claire Dupont, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University
• Presentation by Matthias Duwe, Climate, Ecologic Institute