Late last year, the European Union introduced a $1 trillion plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and achieve a just transition away from polluting technologies.

Europe’s Green Deal enjoys strong backing from many of the EU’s top political figures. But it faces pushback from coal-heavy member states. Implementation of the Green Deal has now been further complicated by the urgent need for governments to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

On this episode, we bring you a conversation with EU Ambassador to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis about the implications of COVID-19 for Europe’s energy and climate agenda.

Not only that — we also discuss the fallout from plummeting oil prices, what to do with stranded fossil fuel assets, the outlook for a U.S. green recovery plan, and corporate clean energy commitments amid coronavirus with a stellar panel of experts from Google, The Aspen Institute and elsewhere. This episode you'll also hear from:

• Nikos Tsafos, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Kevin Book, managing director of research at Clearview Energy Partners
• Marsden Hanna, head of sustainability and climate policy for the government affairs team at Google
• Greg Gershuny, executive director of the Aspen Institute's energy and environment program

Political Climate host Julia Pyper moderates this conversation, which originally took place as a virtual event hosted by the EU Delegation to the U.S.

Recommended reading:

• GTM: Moonshot Moment: Europe Announces Green Deal
• GTM: EU Green Deal Should Be Canceled Because of Coronavirus, Czech PM Says
• Euractiv: EU leaders back ‘green transition’ in pandemic recovery plan
• Virtual event: How COVID-19 affects the climate and energy agenda

Political Climate is produced in partnership with the USC Schwarzenegger Institute. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get podcasts!

This episode is brought to you with support from Eavor, the first truly scalable form of clean baseload power. Learn more at eavor.com.