The Political-Economic Bedrock of Climate Action? Understanding the Many Faces of Green Growth in the European Union

As the first von der Leyen Commission comes to a close in June 2024 and European citizens prepare to head to the polls, it is the appropriate time to take stock of climate policy milestones achieved during the 2019-2024 political term. The European Climate Law passed through the ordinary legislative procedure and entered into force, upgrading the bloc’s emissions reduction target for 2030 and making the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 legally binding. Furthermore, all but one piece of legislation tabled within the Commission’s Fit-for-55 package of proposals reached inter-institutional agreement. On paper, it appears that the climate objectives of von der Leyen’s European Green Deal (EGD) achieved more progress than the two other priorities that fall under the EGD umbrella: the protection of biodiversity and the elimination of pollution. In this paper, I argue that these climate policy wins are anchored discursively by the EU’s interpretation of the green growth idea. While political contexts such as natural disasters, climate activism, and the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must be considered when understanding climate policy milestones achieved during the first von der Leyen Commission, so too is the discursive support provided by EU actors towards the notion that climate action and economic growth can exists side-by-side. I ask the research question: how has the idea of green growth been understood and interpreted by EU actors during the 2019-2024 political term? This paper proceeds as follows: firstly, I draw on literature to provide classical definitions of green green growth. Next, I layout a theoretical framework that is based on notions of valance and coalition magnets, demonstrating how political-economic ideas can become increasingly abstract in certain contexts to appeal to a wider-reaching audience. Thirdly, I discuss the methodology of this paper. I conduct a discourse analysis on Commission proposals, speeches made by Members of the European Parliament, and Council Conclusions. These results are triangulated with 25 semi-structured interviews conducted with EU officials in each of the legislative institutions based in Brussels. I find that the EU’s political employment of green growth is multifaceted, comprising elements of increasing competitiveness, technological development, job creation, resilience, transformation, and even revolution. While political affiliation appears to effect which elements of green growth are brought to the centre of discussion, virtually all actors agree on the power of the idea and impossibility of degrowth in EU contexts. For the first time, this paper brings forward the many faces of green growth in EU political discourse and argues that the complexity of the idea, in part, provided ammunition for a centre-right Commission President and politically diverse Parliament and Council, to push for a climate-neutral 2050.