Newsletter

Is climate action still shaping public policy across the globe?

Publishing date
14 April 2025
Authors
Heather Grabbe Simone Tagliapietra
newsletter

Despite the chilling effects of trade wars, security tensions and US withdrawal from the international climate effort, there is still dynamism in the green transition. Renewable energy deployment continues, driven by economic and security considerations. Industrial policy has been fundamentally reshaped by the green transition, particularly in China. And as during the first Trump presidency, the US withdrawal from global climate governance has not provoked an exodus by other countries.

Across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, significant policy changes are being driven by governments and companies seeking to reduce their exposure to fossil fuel imports, vulnerable supply chains and climate impacts. Climate has moved from being one policy among many to being an objective embedded in energy, industrial, fiscal, trade, development and foreign policies.

However, the rise in geopolitical tensions and uncertainty is detrimental to the sustained capital investment necessary for decarbonisation of energy, industry, transport and buildings. The investment gap is widest in the Global South, where the cost of capital remains prohibitively high for developing countries that most need energy access and infrastructure for adaptation to climate impacts. 

During the ten years since the Paris Agreement, much has been learned about how to reduce emissions and environmental impacts in a fair and effective transition. Our new Bruegel Blueprint ‘Green intersections: The global embedding of climate change in policy’ brings together insights from leading global experts about the experiences of many regions. The authors consider new ways to accelerate global decarbonisation, such as an international agreement on a minimum carbon price, greater China-Europe cooperation, and a global framework for access to clean tech and fair trade to prevent the north-south divide from widening as a result of both climate change and policy responses to it.

Climate action cannot wait for the US to return to the table. Our new book shows that the rest of the world is not in denial. It is already facing the reality of climate impacts and seeing the many benefits of decarbonisation.

The Why Axis is a weekly newsletter distributed by Bruegel, bringing you the latest research on European economic policy. 

About the authors

  • Heather Grabbe

    Heather Grabbe is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and a Visiting Professor at University College London and KU Leuven. Her research focuses on the political economy of the European Green Deal and how the climate transition will change the EU’s international relationships and external policies. She was previously Director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform and senior advisor on the Balkans and Turkey to then European Commissioner Olli Rehn.

  • Simone Tagliapietra

    Simone Tagliapietra is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, a Professor at the Florence School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies Europe of The Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the EU climate and energy policy, and on its industrial and social aspects. He also is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Task Force and Senior Associate of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He holds a PhD in International Political Economy from the Catholic University of Milan.

Language
English

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