← → Shaken by global instability and a populist backlash European nations are retreating from plans to reduce greenhouse gases Green advocates fear the EU will fail to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement presented with great fanfare the so-called “Green Deal.” The package consisted of new laws and directives and multi-billion-euro funding opportunities designed to transform the continent into a sustainability powerhouse and a model for the rest of the world The initiative aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 rewilding large swaths of Europe’s natural areas the EU’s most populous state and its largest economy the German cabinet minister in charge of the environment spoke at the country’s most prestigious environmental awards ceremony in late October we underestimated how great the resistance would be when we started to bring the goals of the Paris climate agreement and the Montreal biodiversity agreement to life,” the Green Party member said “But now we face the wall of those who want to prevent this and who don’t want to move forward.” Subscribe to the E360 Newsletter for weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Sign Up the leader of the neoliberal Free Democratic Party which shares power with the left-leaning Greens and the center-left Social Democratic Party in Germany’s coalition government Citing energy insecurity due to the Ukraine war withdrew his party’s support for a crucial agreement between the governing parties to phase out the nation’s coal-burning power plants by 2030 “Until it is clear that energy is available and affordable we should end dreams of phasing out coal-fired power” by that year The goal of the phaseout was to create additional pressure for utilities to expand wind and solar farms as fast a possible the Free Democrats weakened the Greens’ most important piece of legislation which aimed to replace heating systems that run on oil and gas with heat pumps and renewable energy sources who are responsible for the government’s transport policy have blocked all attempts to reduce car traffic or impose a national speed limit on autobahns has largely given the Free Democrats a free hand in their anti-environment course are now ridiculing or fiercely attacking environment policies warning of a looming “Verbotstaat,” a term for government overreach deputy chair of the scientific body in charge of monitoring Germany’s progress toward its climate goals The nation has committed to shrinking its CO2 emissions to 65 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 Yet the decrease is not fully supported by concrete measures In order to comply with its year-to-year goals Germany would need to prevent cumulative emissions of about 1 billion tons of CO2 until 2030 But “even after the government passed its most important CO2 reduction package this summer there is [an emissions] gap of 200 million tons” — a 20 percent shortfall — mainly in the areas of heating and transport a physicist who also serves as secretary general of the Berlin-based think tank Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change is worried that the German government will set a bad example in the EU and neglect its obligations under the Paris climate accord “We urgently need a signal to Europe that Germany will take further steps,” she said mainly in areas like heavy manufacturing and steelmaking and emissions from vehicles with combustion engines which means cutting into people’s routines the share of renewable energy is far below the 2030 target of 42.5 percent As climate talks near, calls mount for a ‘phaseout’ of fossil fuels. Read more and to restore all degraded ecosystems by 2050 But it came with so many caveats and concessions that environmental organizations were not in a mood to celebrate environmental progress has spawned a full-blown backlash wanted to appoint an infamous climate-change denialist and anti-environment provocateur as environment minister took the unusual step of rejecting the candidate for failing to support the scientific consensus on climate change whose government includes left- and right-wing populist parties then brought in a substitute who presents as more moderate but has a history of weakening laws to protect Slovakia’s nature according to environmentalists who cite his opposition to stricter protection for the country’s national parks “the urgent need to find other ways to energy provisioning has pushed commitments to decarbonization into the background.” She thinks it will be almost impossible for Italy to help the EU reach its emissions goals the newly elected right-wing government cut taxes meant to further reduce CO2 emissions stopped projects that would have improved the capacity of Finland’s extensive bogs to sequester carbon and has failed to take steps to protect old-growth forests from logging for energy production The backlash in many EU countries mirrors developments in the U.K., where the conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reversing climate-friendly policies and planning to “max out” oil production who acted as vice president of the EU commission until August and is considered the architect of the bloc’s Green Deal now sounds the alarm that Europe could fall behind on its goals Timmermans left his Brussels post to run for prime minister of the Netherlands in elections scheduled for November 22 He is now pursuing a “Dutch Green Deal” to save his legacy “The rest of the world doesn’t stand still” in the green economic transition which focuses on green technologies and infrastructure and China’s “renewable energy revolution.” anti-environment coalition recently lost its majority Green campaigners fear that the new coalition will not live up to its pledges to increase renewable energy and protect old-growth forests in the Carpathian Mountains environmental issues are not listed among their priorities.” Nor do they seem to be priorities in Brussels anymore EU commission president von der Leyen finds herself in a balancing act between implementing the Green Deal and rallying support from her conservative European People’s Party (EPP) for a second term starting in 2024 While von der Leyen has stayed personally committed to climate and biodiversity action the EPP has recently become increasingly fierce in its resistance to new environmental measures It has even employed disinformation strategies claiming in social media posts that rewilding wetlands will lead to the abandonment of whole villages Emboldened by electoral victories in member states the EPP successfully weakened the “Nature Restoration Law” in negotiations When key players carved out a final agreement earlier this month upon which the European Parliament will vote in February they gave up on obliging member states to reach ambitious nature restoration goals by certain dates settling instead on prescribing lofty “efforts.” “It is clearly noticeable that countries are vacating positions that they helped to decide on just two years ago,” says Jutta Paulus a member of parliament from the Green Party who has been involved in several high-level negotiations Why is Britain retreating from global leadership on climate action? Read more Back in 2019, Greens performed very well in European elections which raised the profile of environmental topics Paulus now shares the fears of many NGOs and scientists across Europe that climate and biodiversity policies are increasingly being pushed to the sidelines: “Many parties are currently afraid to talk about the environment at all because the argument immediately comes up that we have completely different crises now and we have to stop with the [so-called] ‘flowery stuff.’” Never miss an article. Subscribe to the E360 Newsletter → symbolises the nightmare of the global energy crisis For months campaigners blocked the site’s demolition after Robert Habeck allowed a utility firm to mine for lignite—the dirtiest form of coal—under its graffitied houses As a giant excavator swallowed its way closer unfazed by the pyrotechnics propelled at them Now the village is empty; its last buildings gone Only bits of lutzi (cables and roads) are left for the bucket-wheeled machine to gobble up This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Going great guns” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents Why what you’ve read about the trade deficit hurting growth is wrong A martini doesn’t just steady the nerves after a rollercoaster week Fund managers smell an opportunity to get even bigger A truce is still possible, but no one wants to be first to pick up the phone Registered in England and Wales. No. 236383 | Registered office: The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT | VAT Reg No: GB 340 436 876 EnBW said supply contracts were still being worked out and that it was looking for opportunities in the market.The hectic travel schedule of Habeck and Chancellor Olaf Scholz point to the difficulties in securing major long-term deals that could wean Germany off pricey spot power They have criss-crossed the globe this year to hunt for additional volumes and Norway."I think Germany has been doing whatever it can," said Giovanni Sgaravatti research analyst at the Bruegel think-tank "In the LNG market Germany had to start from scratch which isn't easy."Reuters GraphicsReporting by Christoph Steitz; Additional reporting by Rene Wagner; Graphics by Vincent Flasseur; Editing by Pravin Char Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. 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