Beyond profit: How to reshape the European Green Deal for people’s well-being

As the EU gets ready for make-or-break elections, uncertainties loom over the funding of its climate agenda and the future of the European Green Deal.

Despite forward-looking intentions, the environmental and economic recovery is progressing at a snail’s pace and failing to improve people’s well-being. This is in large part because influential corporations are burdening citizens with climate policies that deliver no tangible benefits.

A searing report by the Citizens’ Observatory on Green Deal Financing – Beyond profit: how to reshape the European Green Deal for peoples’ well-being – analyses key EU funding mechanisms such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and InvestEU. It exposes significant shortcomings in strategic priorities and implementation and shows that the EU’s investment strategy tends to prioritise technological innovation and competitiveness over people’s basic needs and environmental sustainability. neglecting crucial long-term solutions and lacking in both the quality and timing of funding.

To build a stronger climate agenda in Europe, the report underlines the need to prioritise sufficient public investment, democratic planning and a broader focus on just transition strategies over short-term corporate profit.

The report was produced as part of the Citizens' Observatory on Green Deal Financing project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). It brings together the direct experience of nine different civil society organisations and includes seven individual case studies providing information from the ground.