EU only makes rules, US gives incentives

"In Europe, the ecological transition is slowing down because there has been the overregulation of the impressive Green deal and the goals set have not been incentivised, while in the US it is accelerating because few rules have been enacted and incentives have been focused on making it attractive to investments: it is commonly believed that the US has now overtaken the EU that wanted to become the most virtuous green area on the planet". The words of Dror Etzion, professor of strategy and sustainability at the University of Vermont, were an icy shower at the last Trento Festival of Economics. Is it possible that the ecological transition of the 'first continent to achieve climate neutrality by 2050' (as announced by the Von der Leyen Commission) will die in the cradle due to too much stick of rules and too little carrot of incentives to support the necessary investments? So what good has the bitter medicine of 85 demanding regulations and directives passed and another 15 on the way (source: EU legislative train schedule) to implement the European Green deal done? While companies on the Old Continent were raising repeated alarms about the difficulty of withstanding the rain of regulations without loss of competitiveness, American businesses and citizens were benefiting from the massive tax credits of the Inflation Reduction Act, the subsidies for energy from renewable sources, the protectionism of the Buy American Act, and the measures in favour of the electric car industry, at federal and state level. While in Europe, it may be a coincidence, the German locomotive was slowing down, dragging down the economic indicators of a continent already in geopolitical and energy shock due to the war in Ukraine. It will be said that the green turnaround was heavily financed with the Next Generation Eu, RePower Eu plans, with funds from the ordinary EU budget and with those activated by the EIB. But businesses have only been lapped by this flood of money and the funds to compensate the 'losers' of the green turn (e.g. the Just transition fund and the social fund fed by the eco-donor Cbam) are destined for a few projects, for the weaker sections of the population and for micro-enterprises, which it is not clear how they will benefit. In the meantime, the US has put on the arrow. It is to be hoped that the appeals of businesses to review the implementation of the green deal, starting with those of Business Europe, will be heeded and that the ecological transition will not die in the cradle from too much beating.