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(portmanteau noun) A reaction to environmental policies. Not to be confused with green washing, green smelling or green lust
It seems like only yesterday that green policies were on the march. If you don’t pass the biggest climate law in the United States Country historyIt was the European Union that made the law for the world. first A major carbon border tax, or UK, has promised to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. In the year 2030.
Green growth was particularly popular in Europe. In the year By 2022, the European Union’s renewable energy generation has grown significantly, solar and wind Gas passed first time. In the year In 2023, EU emissions fell by 8%, the largest annual decline in the decade outside 2020.
But as climate promises materialized, inflation was driving up the cost of living. Net-zero-skeptic populist parties seized on these to denounce green policies as a costly conspiracy against working people.
As 2023 turned into 2024, the green rally began to falter. Companies He went back From green targets. Germany Water it He dropped the controversial heat pump law that helped push the far-right AfD party’s poll numbers. More than 20 percent. Brussels scratched A plan to cut pesticide use in half. Green parties have suffered in June’s European Parliament elections.
In the UK, the previous Conservative government pushed back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.
However, the Conservatives suffered a heavy electoral defeat against Labor, which pledged to restore its 2030 targets and remains committed to its decarbonisation agenda.
That reminds us that greenlash has its limits, just like China’s remorseless payment for green energy dominance. But with the incoming Trump administration expected to change climate policies and populism in Europe showing no signs of softening, it’s clear that green politics is by no means over.
