85 per cent of EU citizens regard climate change as a problem, but what will become of the Green Deal?
The European Green Deal is stalling amid opposition and second thoughts, and risks losing momentum and credibility
85 per cent of European citizens regard climate change as a serious global problem, and a similar proportion believe that tackling it should be a priority in order to improve public health and quality of life. A slightly smaller proportion (77%) of respondents are convinced that the damage caused by climate change far outweighs the costs involved in transitioning to a net-zero emissions economy.
These are some of the key findings to emerge from the Eurobarometer survey on climate change, which was carried out in recent months amongst more than 26,000 people across the 27 EU Member States.
Despite this broad consensus amongst citizens, one question is being asked with increasing urgency in the corridors of Brussels: what will become of the European Green Deal? The European Commission’s ambitious set of proposals, aimed at transforming Europe into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, dominated the political agenda during Ursula von der Leyen’s first term. But in her second five-year term, the Green Deal seems to be losing momentum, not only due to opposition from some Member States, but also because of second thoughts within the Commission itself.
This is demonstrated by what happened at the end of June, when the Berlaymont Building withdrew the proposal for a directive to protect consumers from greenwashing practices. This decision came just as the legislative process was nearing its conclusion, following two years of negotiations.
The pressing need to boost European competitiveness in an increasingly conflict-ridden geopolitical landscape has led the EU agenda to focus more heavily on defence and the streamlining of red tape, at the expense of green issues. One such example is Directive 2025/794, through which the Commission has postponed the deadlines for the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) by two years.
