We, EU Staff for Climate, want to work together to create a different vision for a more just world where the environment – our home planet – takes priority in policy making.

We have begun a process of creating a series of position papers where we outline our proposals on how to make this happen through EU policy. 

Compared to other high greenhouse gas emitters in the world, the European Union performs relatively well with regard to its handling of the climate crisis. However, the EU must step up its efforts in order to lead by example and to fully align with the Paris Agreement objectives. While the leaders of the EU need to respond to new systemic crises (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war of aggression war on Ukraine), they must keep raising their ambitions with regard to addressing the planetary crisis as long as humanity’s ecological overshoot continues.  

We, EU Staff for Climate, believe that the EU must be more decisive and steer the ship out of these systemic storms by fixing its course towards a more sustainable future. The EU’s exemplarity and consistency on climate change is a matter of shared responsibility and intergenerational justice essential to our survival. 

We strongly believe that the EU and its institutions can and must do better. We are publishing three position papers we have already sent to the leader of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council. 

The EU and its institutions should strengthen their leadership through: 

1. Setting an example: our first paper presents our suggestions on how to work towards real carbon neutrality of institutions and address radically its own greenhouse gas emissions

2. Consistency and coherency: our second paper examines how State aids can become an effective tool to address the climate emergency

3. EU relations with the world : our third paper argues that the EU must uphold this fundamental resolve in its relations to third countries, which starts with clearly opposing backward projects, such as EACOP, that contribute to the ecological overshoot

Each paper represents our position at a specific point in time. We very much hope that as the EU institutions take action on the issues, the contents of the papers will become less and less relevant. 

Please share these position papers with your colleagues!

You are most welcome to contact EU Staff for Climate if you are interested in discussing the position papers or expanding on them.