The European Green Deal and the limits of ecological modernisation

Abstract

With the European Green Deal (EGD), the European Commission presented an ambitious roadmap for accelerated “ecological modernisation” in December 2019. Semantically, the EGD is linked to the New Deal and the debates surrounding the Green New Deal. In contrast, the European Commission’s strategy aims less at profound social change and the questioning of social power relations. Rather, the EGD remains largely within the leitmotif of “ecological modernisation”, which relies on technological innovations without far-reaching social change. The thrust of the EGD bears the hallmark of ecological modernisation; it is about reconciling economy and ecology, about continuing the growth path under green auspices. The greening of the EU is to take place primarily by means of technological innovations. Amongst others, clean hydrogen and carbon dioxide removals (CDR) are central pillars to reach the aim of climate neutrality by 2050. Technological improvements are closely linked to the aim of improving the competitiveness of the European economy and stabilising global power relations under a green mantle. Such a strategy runs the risk of renewing social inequalities within the EU as well as globally. In addition, the war in Ukraine raises further problems for the fulfilment of the EGD.

Drivers and Limits of the Geoeconomic Turn in EU Infrastructure Policy

“…In recent years, this development has gained momentum, initially in the context of the European Green Deal (Haas et al, 2022). Hydrogen represents an option for mitigating the large fluctuations in renewable energies, especially solar and wind power, through storage.…”

“…Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, this design logic has gained importance practically and discursively. It has been articulated primarily by environmental movement organizations as well as green parties and has been taken up and transposed into a modernization strategy by business actors, other political parties, and state apparatuses(Haas et al, 2022). As current debates on renewable energies, hydrogen, or the expansion of rail networks illustrate, issues relating to the generation and supply of energy and mobility are at the center of many infrastructure policy considerations.…”

The more things change, the more they stay the same: promises of bioeconomy and the economy of promises

“…Rather than aiming at any kind of post-growth strategy, they claim to offer a way to reconcile environmental and economic concerns, by putting bio-based 'solutions' at the service of economic growth and constructing the plausible image of a winwin strategy (Kovacic et al 2019). Such eco-modernist visions have recently made significant gains in political currency far beyond the field of bioeconomy policy, as for example in the EU's 'Green Deal' (Haas et al 2022) or the Biden administration's 'Inflation Reduction Act' in the US (Schepelmann 2022, p. 283). The concrete 'solutions' presented in these visions are mostly technologies promising to boost biomass production by improved control over genetic and environmental factors (GMOs, precision agriculture), and/or substitute fossil-based materials and processes as bio-based dropin replacements, such as tires made from dandelion or biopolymers produced by genetically modified bacteria (Boyer et al 2022, in this feature).…”

“…The promise of 'transformation without transformation' thus most closely corresponds to this peculiar hybrid of the 'bio-resource' vision, born out of attempts to manage the escalating crises without questioning the fundamentals of expansionism, 'competitiveness' and the prevalence of an obviously unsustainable and unjust 'imperial mode of living' (Brand and Wissen 2021). The same may be said for ecological modernization projects more broadly, be it in debates around climate policy and energy transitions or comprehensive initiatives like the EU's Green Deal (Haas et al 2022). The more urgent the calls from science and civil society for rapid action, the more transformative the political rhetoric becomes.…”

Mapping the social dimension of the European Green Deal

“…Here, some authors oscillate between hope and disappointment regarding the EGD's potential to develop into a Green New Deal with strong environmental and social impact (Kedward and Ryan-Collins, 2022; Schepelmann, 2022). Others stress the low compatibility of the EGD's green growth model with the de- or postgrowth approaches it would need to take in order to combat the climate crisis effectively (Haas et al, 2022; Ossewaarde and Ossewaarde-Lowtoo, 2020). Furthermore, studies highlight the EU's symbolic efforts to present itself as a climate-protection frontrunner while at the same time continuing on a path of growth-oriented ecological modernization (Eckert and Kovalevska, 2021).…”