Green growth and competitiveness in EU climate policy: paradigm shift or 'plus de la même chose'?

Abstract

This chapter examines how green growth and competitiveness considerations inform EU climate policy and politics. Since the early 1970s, EU policy discourse has emphasised ‘win-win’ narratives in which pro-environmental action contributes to growth and addressing inconsistencies in the internal market. Indeed, the European Green Deal explicitly linked increased climate policy ambition with economic growth; the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic further strengthened talk of a ‘green recovery’. Critics, however, point to the risks that such framings strategically depoliticise EU climate and energy policy and exclude alternative approaches. To explore the dynamics of complementarity and tension between economy and environment, their chapter scrutinises three key areas of the EU’s strategic approach to climate policy: the circular economy, renewable energy development and the so-called New Consumer Agenda.