Climate neutrality through green growth? Addressing possible tensions between the European green deal and the precautionary principle

Abstract

The European Green Deal (EGD) Communication outlines the EU’s strategy for achieving climate neutrality by 2050, with an emphasis on integrating this objective across EU policies. However, the Communication appears to situate the climate neutrality target within a policy framework grounded in a green growth ontology. This article examines the tension between the EGD Communication’s a priori reliance on green growth and the precautionary principle, a core tenet of EU environmental law. While it does not directly assess green growth’s effectiveness, it acknowledges significant critiques of the paradigm and observes that restricting the climate neutrality objective within a green growth framework is inherently risky. The study seeks to determine the extent to which the European Commission’s formulation of a growth-oriented EGD Communication may have given rise to tensions with the precautionary principle. Through document analysis of the EGD Communication and a review of literature on green growth and the precautionary principle, this paper explores these tensions. It identifies risks inherent in constraining the climate neutrality objective within a green growth framework and highlights how the precautionary principle could offer a pathway for legal research to evaluate such policies. The paper concludes that the EU Commission, by grounding the EGD Communication in green growth assumptions, has acted in contravention of the precautionary imperative. Finally, it outlines possible corrective measures and avenues for future research.