While the ambitious objectives outlined in the EU’s Green Deal aim at making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, national implementation greatly varies depending on local geographies, history, culture, economics, and politics. This book analyses Member States’ and EU neighbours’ national efforts to combat climate change. It subsequently draws on these factors to highlight local challenges, tensions, and opportunities on the road towards climate neutrality. In the context of inter-country dependencies following Russia’s war against Ukraine, it addresses strategic questions regarding EU integration, the transformation of our economies, the reduction of energy dependencies, and public perception of the above. The book also makes concrete recommendations, in various policy areas, on how individual countries and the EU as a whole should deal with the climate crisis.
Dr. Michael Kaeding holds a Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration and European Union Politics at the Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He is a visiting fellow of the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht and member of the flying faculties of the College of Europe, Bruges, and the Turkish-German University in Istanbul. From 2016 to 2019 he was the chairman of the Trans European Policy Studies Association.
Dr. Johannes Pollak is a Professor of International Relations and rector of Webster Vienna Private University, Austria. Prior to this position, he headed the Department of Political Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. In summer 2019, he was elected Chairperson of the Board of the Institute of European Politics in Berlin.
Paul Schmidt is the Secretary General of the Austrian Society for European Politics, which promotes andsupports the analysis of and communication on European affairs. Prior to that he has worked at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, both in Vienna and at its office in Brussels at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union.
