The European Union’s Green Deal is a comprehensive economic strategy, which, at its core, involves ambitious climate targets and according realignment of several policy areas. The Fit for 55 package is planned to include extensive policy reforms to this end. These domestic climate mitigation efforts have effects internationally, considering the EU’s manifold and deep interrelations with other countries. In order to avoid alienating partners and allow the Green Deal to have a positive impact internationally, it must be complemented by diplomatic efforts.
To accelerate climate action internationally, many new partnerships and initiatives have been created, most recently at COP 26 in Glasgow. On the one hand, these are essential, considering that the Paris Agreement has so far not generated the ambition required to achieve its 1.5 degree goal. On the other hand, there is the same question here about contextual conditions and requirements for climate diplomacy and supplementation of the Green Deal and the Paris Agreement through various form of cooperation.
Against this background, the Green Deal Diplomacy research project analyses the challenges for new forms of cooperation in international climate politics. What initiatives and partnerships are necessary to accelerate implementation globally and align it with the Paris Agreement goals? What contextual conditions determine the political feasibility of these forms of cooperation? How do they affect other multilateral fora and bilateral partnerships? How do new forms of cooperation relate to the established processes under the UN climate convention and its core principles?
