EU throws green spanner in the works of global trade

Europe has big plans for the environment – but making them work without damaging world trade will be a challenge.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen © KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images

Ursula von der Leyen is plotting a big shake-up
(Image credit: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen © KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Europe is about to "stake its economic future on an environmental clean-up that will overhaul the way the world's biggest single market polices businesses and manages trade relations", say Ewa Krukowska and Jonathan Stearns on Bloomberg. Under the "European Green Deal" announced by the new European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU transition to climate neutrality would start next year. It is set to include stricter emission limits, updated energy taxes, new rules on subsidies, greener farming and a possible environmental import tax. The EU also hopes to catalyse global action and uphold the Paris Agreement. The US has "turned its back on the accord" and some of the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitters including China, India and Japan have "so far failed" to translate their pledges into action.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.