Is the EU’s green edge under threat?

THE philosophical roots of modern-day environmentalism can be traced back at least as far as 19th-century US naturalist Henry David Thoreau. It was in the US, too, where “green politics” first took significant root, with conservation movements influencing leaders such as former president Theodore Roosevelt.

Yet in recent decades, it is Europe that has been at the epicentre of sustainability megatrends. In 2005, the EU was the first power to introduce a large-scale carbon-trading system, helping to set the policy agenda for other governments from the Asia-Pacific to the Americas.

This has only intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There has been growing momentum behind the European Green Deal, with more than 50 major sustainability initiatives rolled out since the signature policy agenda was announced in 2019.