Since its launch in 2019, the European Green Deal has proven to be an exceptional tool that boosted EU’s commitment to cut its emissions and become the first climate-neutral continent in the world. Yet, these efforts will start to sound like empty promises if the EU does not begin assessing the international implications of its own transition and develops policies that guarantee a fair distribution of its costs between Europe and its partner countries. If not planned and implemented coherently, the European Green transition will lead to environmentally and socially harmful impacts on the Global South and increase inequality and poverty instead of eliminating them. The EU needs to develop a Global Just Transition strategy with a Global Green Deal at its core. It should ensure policy coherence for development and accelerate the Global North’s just transition to a green economy while supporting, incentivizing, and facilitating partner countries to move in the same direction. If we fail to do this, the achievement of the sustainable development goals by 2030 will remain a distant ambition. 

This is the reason why, as part of the campaign “Global Just Transition: Not Just for (E)U“, SOLIDAR advocates for a Global Green Deal in line with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, meaning a Green Deal with an external dimension to guarantee a fair distribution of the cost of the transition between Europe and partner countries.

On the 29th of February 2024, together with the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO), Fairtrade International and the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), we have issued a powerful Call to Action to transform the European Green Deal into a Global Green Deal to make it more social, equitable, just and fair at the international level, and to recreate a common vision and commitment to its essential goals.