15.12.2020
Abstract
How could the EU Climate Diplomacy help overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and revive multilateralism?
The year 2020 was expected to be the year of climate action. The new European Commission started implementing its European Green Deal programme and COP26 would close the year with more ambitious climate commitments. Unfortunately, the emergence of COVID-19 threatened to put an end to the international climate momentum and hinder the EU diplomatic strategy. This article traces the history of the development of EU climate diplomacy to better understand the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on the EU climate strategy, and on the international fight against climate change at large. The ongoing ‘game-changing’ pandemic is not only hindering climate negotiations but also weakening climate action ambitions. Nevertheless, there is a silver lining for climate diplomacy to reverse the trend. In the course of this analysis recommendations were drawn for the EU to strive for a more modern multilateralism, unified union and intersectional climate policy.
About the author
Angeline Sanzay
Angeline Sanzay is a young professional currently performing a traineeship within the European Commission and working in the field of EU climate policy. She graduated from the College of Europe in 2019 with a degree in European Interdisciplinary Studies and a specialisation in EU environmental and energy policies. She has already written several pieces of paper tackling different aspects of the EU policies in the fight against climate change.
#ClimateDiplomacy #ClimateAction #COVID-19 #pandemic #Multilateralism #ParisAgreement
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