The European Green Deal as an Ethico-Political Act? Identifying Structural Change in Climate Discourse through Psychoanalytic Political Theory

Abstract

The European Green Deal (EGD), the European Union’s (EU) plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, was presented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in late 2019 as Europe’s ‘man on the moon’ moment (von der Leyen, 2019). Under the EGD just about everything the EU does will have to, in some way or another, contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation or climate adaptation. The Commission claims that doing so will usher in a new era of growth, leaving no one behind in the process (European Commission, 2019). The EGD paints a utopian, prosperous, green future underpinned by the supposition that GDP growth will be absolutely decoupled from material use and emissions through the proliferation of renewables, technological advancements, and a circular economy. It, for example, will compensate and retrain displaced workers (Just Transition Mechanism) as well as renovate buildings with green, efficient technologies (NextGeneration EU Recovery Plan). Honestly, the EGD is just what (almost) everyone wanted to hear; climate change will be solved, and your average person will not have to sacrifice any degree of their comfortable material and energy intensive lifestyle for this plan to work.