Mapping the Way to a Roadmap

The EU Green Week Conference was an amazingly fitting and fortunately timed component to our study trip. The event fell conveniently during our time in Brussels and was open to the public. The four-day conference on EU environmental and climate policy was focused on the topic of resource efficiency. Each day dozens of panelists from different organizations and governance bodies presented on a broad range of topics all associated with resource efficiency and EU policy. One of these presentations, “EU and national roadmaps for a low-carbon economy by 2050”, focused on the politics of creating roadmaps, specifically for emissions reductions. The first speaker in this panel was Dr Steven Marr, a German scientist who is in large part responsible for the design of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme, which was of interest to me as it was the focus of my research this spring for Professor Buck’s class.
Dr Marr’s presentation however was not focused on the EU ETS in fact it had very little to do with it, instead he focused on the German roadmap to reduce their green house gas emissions by 40% of their 1990 levels by the year 2020. This German roadmap is one of the most demanding and successful in the EU. What was really compelling to me was the conviction the German government has expressed in meeting this goal. Dr Marr made it very clear that this goal would be met despite some added costs that would be incurred along the way. At the time of the presentation green house gas emissions had been reduced by upwards of 23% and were on track to exceed the 40% benchmark before the 2020 deadline.
While Dr Marr’s presentation covered this policy and its details closely, the most impressive component of the presentation to me was the steadfast and unwavering commitment of the German government to meet their own objectives. This political diligence is something I have rarely seen in American politics especially in areas concerning the environment. While goals and benchmarks seem to be set every election cycle they are rarely, if ever met and surely not surpassed. Legislation is often toothless and compromised by exceptions and loopholes. While I cannot dissect the differences in political culture between the US and Europe one attribute that became apparent during this trip was the integral part of consensus, cooperation and degree of commitment to environmental policy in Europe that simply does not exists in the US. This contrast illustrates some interesting cultural and political differences between the two areas and how political systems and culture are very related. Fortunately, politics can be dynamic and can always evolve into more positive configurations.