January 2023
Kristína Šefčíková, Prague Security Studies Institute
Introduction
The European Green Deal is a political initiative of the European Commission introduced in 2019 that sets a goal for the European Union (EU) to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The agreement, accepted by all EU members in 2020, includes a binding plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels. In July 2021, a new set of initiatives and proposals called Fit for 55 was presented by the Commission to revise and update EU legislation to align with the objectives for years 2030 and 2050. The Fit for 55 package pertains to fields such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, the EU Emissions Trading System, and CO2 emissions of cars and vans.
The Green Deal resonates significantly within the Czech disinformation scene. Experts have tracked anti-Green Deal narratives since at least the beginning of 2021, when then became a polarizing issue particularly before the Czech parliamentary elections in October 2021. In 2022 the debate around the Green Deal and human causes of climate change acquired a new dimension due to the unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine and the associated issues of energy dependence and diversification. These events, underlining the energy security aspects of the green transition, further demonstrate that the EU energy and green policies are interconnected, and one cannot fully function or be implemented without the other.
With these issues in mind, the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) monitored the Czech online debate about the European Green Deal, climate change, and energy-related issues from June to December 2022. The monitoring was part of a larger initiative of the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Beacon Project, European Green Deal: Mapping perceptions in Central and Eastern Europe, which took place in five EU countries simultaneously. The goal of the monitoring was to examine in what context local actors discuss the Green Deal and energy-related topics, what were the dominant narratives, who were the leaders of the debate, and particularly if (and how) the topic became a target of disinformation campaigns. Besides mapping the general debate, part of our goal was also to explore how relevant stakeholders engage in strategic communication on the topic. The report concludes with policy recommendations for these efforts.
Our research revealed a strongly negative public debate on the Green Deal, hijacked by domestic politics and economic issues, driven mainly by the right-wing, national-conservative, political opposition. These actors drew inaccurate causal relations between the Green Deal and the current energy and economic crisis. Domestic politics dominated the debate, and the Green Deal became a scapegoat, used as a tool for spreading anti-government and anti-EU narratives. A consistent and constructive debate on the actual content and goals of the Green Deal, or on climate change in general, is largely missing both in political messaging and the general online debate.
Read more articles written on the topic of the European Green Deal here
