Climate action: talking the talk and walking the walk

As young people around the world swap classrooms for street protest to demand action in response to the climate emergency, the incoming President of the European Commission has promised to make a Green Deal her top priority. Ursula von der Leyen says she’s heeding the voice of youth and aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent. She plans a European Climate Law to give legal certainty to the drive to carbon neutrality by 2050. The EC is talking the talk on climate, but can it walk the walk? The meeting of alumni from Friends of Europe’s European Young Leaders Programme focused on how to ensure the proposed Green Deal can be an effective tool, rather than just another bumper sticker. It examined how other public institutions, the private sector, civil society and us all as individuals can take action that works to save the planet from the ravages of climate change.