This Friday, the European Commission will issue a blueprint to accelerate the Continent’s shift from dirty oil and gas to green electricity. [some emphasis, links added]
It sounds like just another day at the office for the technocrats in Brussels, churning out yet another law or policy, and flogging a weary Continent towards net zero.
But business and climate campaigners are both watching this one extra closely.
The European Union’s journey toward net zero is at a crossroads, and the electrification plan could shed light on which direction the bloc is heading.
When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he triggered an energy shortage and a cost-of-living crisis that dealt a blow to Europe’s zeal for net zero. Just this week, new data shows that Europe is struggling to wean itself off Russian gas.
In the invasion’s wake, populist politicians have increasingly questioned whether Europe needs to race to climate neutrality at top speed and at all costs.
Beleaguered businesses, meanwhile, reeling from soaring energy bills and cut-price Chinese imports, are begging to be spared from yet more red tape and higher climate-related costs.
Brussels has been unable to ignore the backlash. In the past 18 to 24 months, it has taken the pruning shears to its thicket of green rules.
The European Commission’s rhetoric, from President Ursula von der Leyen down, has focused less on fighting climate change and more on energy costs and supply security.
“There is an understanding that it’s not an easy journey to get to climate neutrality, and that a more pragmatic approach is needed,” says Alexandre Affre, deputy director general of the lobby group Business Europe.
Rich World Net Zero has a tiny impact
Even if the US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the rest of the rich world go Net Zero by 2050
it will only reduce global temperatures by 0.10°C (0.18°F) in 2100
Still, it will cost $100s of trillionshttps://t.co/Ydb0J825aJ,… pic.twitter.com/RLrhsGLGlP
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) July 10, 2026
The electrification plan is shaping up as a litmus test of the EU’s changing mood.
It will tell business, environmental activists, and the wider world whether Brussels is doubling down on its newfound pragmatism or rekindling its single-minded commitment to net zero.
The plan may even open up a third possibility, says Manon Dufour, of the think tank E3G: Ukraine and Iran may have given the EU a way to yoke together longstanding climate goals with new demands for energy security.
“They’re trying to balance the old and the new, and doing this in the context of war and the search for stability,” she says.
“You won’t have the same narrative on setting targets. It’s more about making it happen, lowering prices, and making sure it reaches the industry. It’s more about delivery, about security and cohesion.”
If this is the new path, Brussels could pull off an unlikely coup that has so far escaped Britain: it could bridge the divisions that have opened up over net zero since the Ukraine invasion.
Top: Farmers took to the streets of Germany over EU agricultural reforms. Screencap.
Read rest at The Telegraph
