EU Is Out to Prove Saving the Planet Doesn’t Have to Hurt Growth

  • Trade-off experiment in Europe will provide beacon for others
  • Green transition needs to defy experience of economic history

Wind turbines at a wind farm during sunset in Nauen Brandenburg, Germany.

Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg
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The European Union’s push to banish carbon from its economy is offering the world a real-time experiment on whether such a shift is achievable without hurting short-term prosperity.

With the COP-26 conference concluding this weekend with some thwarted ambitions toward international action on curbing emissions, the bloc is forging ahead with a strategy cementing its role as the foremost global pioneer in turning green rhetoric into reality.