Décarbonation de l'Europe : Et si la politique de la concurrence était un atout ?

The succession of crises (climate, health, energy,etc.) is subjecting competition policy to stress tests, particularly in Europe, which has been weakened by these shocks and is faced with the need to adapt in the short term. For the same reasons, industrial policy is also back in the spotlight at the start of this decade. We are looking here at the extent to which Europe's ability to adapt its competition policy (cf. the recent update of the horizontal guidelines) is an asset, by improving the legal certainty of companies' efforts to decarbonise. This comes at a time when, on the other hand, the "anti-ESG" (environmental, social, and governance) movement in the United States is seeking, notably by mobilising arguments based on antitrust, to thwart the inclusion of environmental factors in the strategy of companies or fund managers. We are testing the following hypothesis: if, under pressure from their stakeholders, most large companies define a decarbonisation trajectory, these efforts to confer legal certainty could be a factor in making Europe's markets more attractive and its businesses more competitive.