European Green Deal Barometer
The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) launched a survey in partnership with GlobeScan, , The EEAC Network and seven other organizations, asking 300 sustainability experts about their views on the progress made in implementing the European Green Deal. The survey was concluded early 2021. Today – April 29th – IEEP and GlobeScan launched the report written based on the findings of the survey. The report identifies the challenges to the European Green Deal’s implementation and provides policy recommendations for addressing them.
Key Findings
- The lack of commitment by the Member States is seen as the biggest barrier to the Green Deal Implementation (33% of respondents rank it within the top two barriers), followed by inadequate governance mechanisms (25% of respondents) and unequal progress across the EU Member States (24% of respondents).
- The greatest amount of progress made is in ‘increasing the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050’ (37% see progress made), followed by ‘supplying clean, affordable, and secure energy’ (24% of respondents). Only 13% say that adequate progress has been made on preserving and restoring biodiversity; and 14% on sustainable and healthy agriculture.
- Moving forward, respondents recommend focusing action on 3 pillars of the Green Deal: mobilizing industry for a clean and circular economy, preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity and fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food systems.
Top three recommendations
- Ensure that the award and use of EU recovery funds are focused on low-carbon and environmental projects.
- Set an absolute reduction target in material footprint consumption as part of the Circular Economy Action plan (CEAP) and mainstream a circular economy approach in the EU industrial strategy.\
- Align the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform with the ‘farm to fork’ strategy and boost investment in nature-based solutions to preserve biodiversity.