To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, EU policy will have to be reoriented – from incremental towards structural change. As expressed in the European Green Deal, the task is not only to initiate the necessary transformation in the coming years, but also to enhance competitiveness, productivity, employment, and health. To mobilise the creative, financial and political resources to achieve the required degree of technological, economic and behavioural change, the EU also needs a governance framework that facilitates cross-sectoral policy integration and allows citizens, public and private stakeholders to participate in the process and to own the results.
The 4i-TRACTION project analyses what transformative climate policy could look like for the EU. It sets out from a stock-take of existing climate policies and their performance, analysing which factors contributed to the achievement of the EU’s 2020 climate targets, supported by an assessment of key climate policies and their implementation in seven Member States. On this basis, the project develops and assesses four policy avenues to describe how the current mix of EU climate and energy policies needs to evolve in the 2020s to set course for climate neutrality by 2050. This feeds into an effective governance framework for implementing the policy avenues, aligned with the EU’s long-term objective of climate-neutrality by 2050 as the EU’s contribution to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the implementation of the SDGs. In doing so, the project takes the realities of EU policymaking as its point of departure – the European Green Deal and its implementation in the Fit-for-55 and RePowerEU packages to the post-Covid-19 recovery efforts and the current geopolitical realities and energy crisis.
The analysis is structured around four cross-cutting core challenges, the four “I’s”:
- Fostering breakthrough Innovation,
- shifting Investment and finance,
- rolling out the Infrastructure for a climate-neutral and resilient economy, and
- Integrating solutions across sectors.
The structure of the project reflects that a systemic transformation will need to go beyond sectoral policy approaches. The analysis will also include the global context by incorporating insights and experiences from outside the EU and by examining how the EU’s efforts interact with those of other key countries. The analysis carried out in the project is thoroughly grounded in science, but also aligned with the EU's dynamic political environment. To receive input, provide feedback and validate conclusions, the project closely engages with stakeholders throughout its duration.
