Running up that hill

The Policy Paper “Running up that hill. A New Start for Transatlantic Climate Policy” develops an eight-point programme to make the transatlantic relations the engine of global climate neutrality.

With Biden’s victory, the USA can again take its place as a driving force in international climate policy and pick up where it left off after the successful negotiation of the Paris Agreement under the Obama administration. This also means a new start for transatlantic climate cooperation. At the same time, the elections as well as the storming of the United States Capitol reveal a country that is increasingly divided; the decisions required for ambitious climate policy cannot simply come from the White House.

The situation prompts the question: What can Germany and the EU do to make strategic use of this new start? adelphi, commissioned by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Parliamentary Group of the German Bundestag, analyses how to meet these challenges from a transatlantic perspective. Entry points for cooperation on multiple levels are identified and discussed against the background of the election results, but also with a view to the current climate policy discussions in Germany and Europe. As a result, new alliances are needed for climate protection with the new US Government but also at the level of the US Congress, with business and civil society movements that reach far into American society. Possible options and levels of action are analysed and eight concrete recommendations are summarised in the Policy Paper. This eight-point programme  shows how diverse a joint cooperation agenda can and must be designed to decisively counter the climate crisis from a transatlantic perspective – the programme is focusing on green finance, carbon pricing and green hydrogen, but also on crucial social areas such as climate justice.