By FTAO
It is inevitable that any transformative policy will face resistance throughout its long journey to actual implementation. The vital European Green Deal (EGD) is no exception, being constantly questioned by populist and conservative forces on the grounds of incompatibility with the energy crisis, inflation and who knows what tomorrow.
Without both internal and external social and environmental justice, the EU’s flagship climate policy won’t succeed.
Overall, the EGD has failed to reduce the externalities of EU production, consumption, and trade with the rest of the world. There is an astronomical increase in the amount of outsourced forced labour, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions every year. A number of measures have been taken to reduce these externalities (such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, EU Deforestation Regulation), but these are still structurally insufficient as they tend to ignore the root causes of the unbalance at stake, namely poverty or the unfair distribution of power and value in supply chains. Moreover, the EU has not developed these measures in true cooperation with its trading partners. So, the credibility and even legitimacy of the European Green Deal are seriously at risk.
The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) is proposing a vision that will transform the EGD into a Global Green Deal to prevent its derailment, and it is collaborating with like-minded CSOs to come up with policy measures for an EU climate policy that will be socially and environmentally just both within the EU and around the globe. There is no doubt that Fair Trade can bring essential elements of justice and collaboration to the Global Green Deal.
Eric Ponthieu, FTAO strategy director, ponthieu@fairtrade-advocacy.org