Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

Climate change is described as the greatest security challenge of our time. Climate-related events do not only run the risk of damaging the environment we depend on, but also risk undermining our political, economic and social systems.The European Union is an influential player and key actor in the fight against climate change and has in recent years adopted a number of ambitious initiatives. In December 2019, the European Union launched The European Green Deal, with the objective of making Europe a carbon-neutral continent by 2050. In June 2021, the first European Climate Law came into force, which incorporates the goal of a carbon-neutral continent by 2050 into European legislation.

This thesis aims to examine to what extent the EU’s new climate policy is based on Green Growth Theory and what consequences this can have for security policy. The core of Green Growth Theory is the belief that economic growth is, or can be made, compatible with the ecology of our planet. However, the Green Growth Theory has been criticized by several researchers for lacking empirical evidence. This thesis finds that the EU’s climate policy is to a large part based on Green Growth Theory. Paradoxically, this causes both security and insecurity for the European Union. Economic and geopolitical security is sustained by continued economic growth creating competitiveness in the global arena. Nevertheless, environmental insecurity is triggered as the new climate policy is based on a theory that lacks empirical evidence, prioritizes economic growth and measures success in measures that disregard a sizeable part of the total emissions.