Seminar: Reaching climate neutrality in the Baltic States
To reach global climate stabilisation, it is crucial that countries develop long-term visions, goals and strategic guidelines for climate policy embedded in the broader sustainability agenda. All Member States are already legally obliged to produce, and periodically update, national long-term strategies in the European Union, as mandated by the Governance Regulation (2018/1999) of the European parliament and Council on 11th December 2018. However, countries have differed significantly in terms of their drafting process, final results, and timing.
In the Baltic countries, strategies have been adopted between 2017 and 2021. During that time, the environment related to climate mitigation has continued to evolve, most recently with the Green Deal and ‘Fit for 55’ package of measures, and subsequently in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although this complicates drawing direct comparisons, a clear distinction with some other member states (such as the Visegrad 4) can be seen in the degree of scenario modelling and the coverage of socioeconomic aspects included in the Baltic strategies. Moreover, limited attempts have so far been made to synthesise or integrate efforts across the region. On the other hand, a positive note is found in the requirement for strategies to be further updated, affording the opportunity to guide the process and seek best practices from all Member States.
This event focused on an analysis of the approaches across the Baltic states to the development of each respective national long-term strategy and current best practices and highlight missing elements and cross-cutting issues.
The event took place in the framework of the Climate Recon 2050 project, a platform for intra-EU dialogue on national long-term strategies started in 2017. It connected national experts involved in drafting and implementing long-term climate strategies and provided a forum to exchange experiences and best practices. The analysis of the Baltic countries is third in a series of regional comparisons can be found here.