Working Together Towards a Sustainable Future

THE COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged every continent and put unprecedented strain on our economies.

- FRANCISCUS CORNELIS GERARDUS MARIA TIMMERMANS

Yet, while we continue to focus on fighting COVID-19 and its consequences for the global economy, the clock has not stopped ticking on the other global crises: the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, pollution, and the over-exploitation of resources.

These crises are interrelated. Climate change accelerates the destruction of nature through droughts, flooding, and wildfires. Biodiversity loss and unsustainable use of nature are in turn-key drivers of climate change.

Logically the solutions must also be interrelated. Healthy ecosystems help us mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The EU Green Deal

About one year ago, when the world still looked very different from today, we presented the European Green Deal. It was conceived as Europe’s new growth strategy, a strategy to bring together environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

And with the impact of the current crisis, the green transition that we had already planned for with the European Green Deal also became our roadmap for recovery in Europe.

It will focus on sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, on greening our cities and countryside, on green products and services, on sustainable agriculture and food, on clean transport, and on innovation in cleantech. It will put us on the right path to a sustainable future.

We are leaving behind the slash-and-burn carbon economy, and moving to a clean, innovative, inclusive, and circular economy that allows us to restore biodiversity and cut pollution while creating growth, jobs, prosperity, and health.

Green Growth