European Environmental Policy In Light Of The Paris Agreement

Addressing the threat of climate change requires a fundamental transformation of societies and economies in the coming decades. An essential challenge for current decision makers is to reconcile short-term policies and measures with long-term objectives. The long-term vision and the short-term actions are mutually supportive if they are consistent: decarbonisation can be triggered by the choices made at the moment, and long-term thinking not only reveals optimal short-term actions, but can also inform and stimulate the support of stakeholders. As the situation presents, at this point, following the negotiations, within the legislative package "Clean energy for all Europeans", many key elements regarding governance and long-term objectives have already been enshrined in law. Such an explicit link between short-term climate action and long-term objectives is new to EU climate governance. However, while the Paris Agreement has undoubtedly shifted its focus from incremental change to fundamental change, the success of this realignment is hampered by several challenges.