The EU's 'Fit for 55' Just Raised the Bar on Climate Policy
![European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents the EU's new climate policy proposals as EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni sits next to her, in Brussels, Belgium on July 14, 2021.](http://cdn.cfr.org/sites/default/files/styles/slide_3_2/public/image/2021/07/rtxed70u.webp)
In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I detail the European Commission’s new 12-point climate change plan, the challenges the plan faces, and whether other countries will follow its lead.
Last week the European Commission seized global leadership on climate change, unveiling a sweeping scheme to reduce the EU’s carbon emissions by 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve “net zero” by 2050. Brussels envisions a total overhaul of the bloc’s economy, including eliminating the sale of new gas- and diesel-powered automobiles by 2035 and introducing border taxes to penalize imports from jurisdictions less committed to decarbonization.
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The bloc’s bold move ramps up diplomatic pressure on the United States, China and other major emitters to respond in kind in the run-up to the Glasgow climate change conference. The ultimate fate of the commission’s proposal will depend on whether its carbon border adjustment scheme proves WTO-compatible; whether the heterogeneous, 27-member European Union maintains solidarity as it hammers out the plan’s details; and whether others in fact follow the bloc’s lead.
Read the full World Politics Review article here.
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