🗼 TEN YEARS AFTER PARIS

Dear Reader,

Good morning, some weeks feel like years, don’t they?

Ever get the sense that the world is spinning faster than your brain can process?

Ten years ago this month, in Paris, the US and Europe led the world to a historic agreement to limit the planet’s dangerous warming. The Paris Agreement changed everything: it brought climate change into our politics, our media, our culture. Some decades feel like centuries.

Since then, the US has quit the deal twice (yes, every time Trump steps in), while the EU built its own Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 – a plan now under attack from vested interests and the far-right. Quite a journey, huh? Sometimes you wonder whether the Paris Agreement would even be possible if negotiated today (well, it wouldn’t).

But this newsletter is your steady anchor in the swirling currents of modern times. We’ve got you covered with what’s happening to the EU’s climate legacy and some lessons from the present:

🌍 Climate talks a decade after Paris

✊ A moment of truth for EU civil society

💚 How climate wins: fair, fun and fierce

⚔️ Saving LIFE: Europe’s green heartbeat

And before we dive in, a quick musical snack: check out Black Country, New Road – progressive folk at its wildest. I just saw them live, and wow (this song is dedicated to our colleague Ruby, who this week adds another candle to the collection 🎂). #RoiInsists I also plug in Vice, a biopic on the rise and fall of (late) Dick Cheney. I just follow orders.

Happy reading. If you enjoy it, consider buying us a coffee.

🦜 CLIMATE TALKS, POOR DEALS

Ten years later – Next week, the world meets again for COP30, exactly a decade after the Paris Agreement was adopted. In Brussels, EU governments have just scrambled to agree on their 2040 and 2035 climate targets, desperate to avoid the embarrassment of showing up empty-handed.

Leadership, or lip service? With the US on fossil autopilot, Europe likes to see itself as the world’s green torchbearer. But the 2040 climate target agreed by ministers this week doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny, which calls for at least a 90% domestic emissions reduction.

A target full of holes – Governments want an 85% cut, padded with 5% offsets outside Europe – not to mention a laundry list of “flexibilities” that let them cheat: revisable targets, sector loopholes (hi agriculture), and lower ambition if nature fails to absorb enough carbon. Overperformance excuses inaction; failure has no consequences. They call it flexibility, but it’s really a free pass to fail.

Delaying the inevitable – To top it off, EU countries proposed postponing the entry of buildings and transport into the carbon market (ETS2) until 2028. With the ETS2 being one of the few tools that could cut emissions where progress is too slow, this is yet another gift to laggards, another cost for everyone else.

Read our press release.

What’s next? The target now moves to trilogues – informal negotiations – between the EU Parliament, Commission, and Council. The first will define its position next week, and it already looks stronger than governments’. The Commission’s stance is stronger too. Europe needs mid-term targets that bring clarity, not cover. Flexibility should never pave the way to failure. Lack of ambition may be a sign of the times, shaped by Trump-era backsliding – but Europe can’t let its climate agenda be taken hostage by it. The more we hesitate, the weaker we look.

✊ RESTORING OUR DEMOCRATIC ECOSYSTEM

Moment of truth – On 12 November, the Commission will unveil its long-awaited Democracy Shield and Civil Society Strategy – two policies that could redefine how Europe supports and protects its democratic space and independent voices.

What happens when NGOs die – As we argued in our recent EUobserver op-ed, Europe’s leadership on environmental and social issues is because of, not in spite of, its civil society. Yet attacks on NGOs have moved from the fringes to the EU’s core – through funding cuts, smear campaigns, creeping legal restrictions and administrative obstacles.

A shield, but how strong? The Democracy Shield aims to counter democratic backsliding, disinformation, and foreign interference. All good, but these tools mustn’t become weapons to silence protests, unions or NGOs. Defending democracy means expanding participation, not policing dissent.

A strategy for survival. The Civil Society Strategy, long pushed by NGOs and cross-party politicians, could finally anchor the EU’s commitment to civic space. It’s not legally binding, but it’s a litmus test for this Commission’s legacy: will it ensure stable funding, real participation, and independent watchdogs – or just words on paper?

Civil society for transition. Through our Democracy for Transition Coalition, the EEB and partners have fed in concrete proposals for both initiatives. If the Commission listens, Europe can nurture a democracy that not only survives, but thrives, the kind of democracy that can deliver a just and green transition.

💚 HOW CLIMATE WINS: FAIR, FUN AND FIERCE

From New York to the world – We can’t ignore the political earthquake in New York: newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani has captured global attention with a campaign that fused social justice and climate justice into one powerful story – one about affordability, mobility, and dignity.

Politicians are taking notes – If green policies want mass support, they must connect to daily life: affordable homes, cleaner air, reliable (and free!) public transport. Opponents frame the green transition as a cost; but it’s the smartest investment in healthier, fairer, better lives. The climate fight won’t be won with fear, but with fairness (and flair ✨). Optimism isn’t naïve: it’s our strategy, because environmentalists have a winning story to tell.

Rising movement – While Trump and other “climate wreckers” cling to the myth that burning more fossil fuels equals “freedom”, a new coalition of hope is taking shape. Cities, regions, and people everywhere are proving that the future can’t be bullied back into the past. This week, over 300 mayors gathered ahead of COP30 to launch a global alliance for cooler, more resilient cities. Check out our post on cool cities doing cool things!

⚔️ FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT

A fight for LIFE – Amid negotiations for the next EU budget, 820 European organisations (from cities and universities to NGOs and businesses across our continent) have joined forces to defend the iconic LIFE Programme, the EU’s only fund fully dedicated to environment, climate, and nature.

This echoes similar calls, including those from the world’s largest conservation forum, recently hosted by the IUCN, which brought together more than 170 governments, including all 27 EU Member States, and thousands of NGOs from around the world, all calling for dedicated and transparent funding for nature. To save LIFE.

Cutting LIFE short – The Commission’s draft for the next EU budget (2028–2034) would scatter LIFE’s funding across broader instruments like the EU Facility and National Partnership Plans. That means less predictability, fewer local projects, and a weaker EU Green Deal.

Europe’s green backbone – Since 1992, LIFE has supported 6,000+ projects, leveraged €30 billion in green investment, and helped shape EU policies from biodiversity to clean energy. Breaking it apart would undo three decades of progress and cooperation. Environmental action is not an economic burden; every euro invested in nature brings up to €38 in benefits!

March with us!-This Sunday, 9 November, from 2–4 p.m. at Brussels Central Station to raise our voices for the climate, nature, and the Amazon. Together with Rise for Climate Belgium, We Are Nature, and Espirito Mundo, we’ll call on world leaders to honour the Paris Agreement and phase out fossil fuels. See you there!

🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT

As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:

• Brazil dismantles hundreds of illegal dredges in major Amazon mining crackdown. Read more here
• Global deforestation declines for third decade in a row. Read more here
• ‘A meeting of voices’: flotillas head into Belém ahead of Cop30 climate summit. Read more here
• Six new species of bats discovered- just in time for Halloween. Read more here

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By: Alberto Vela. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez, Ben Snelson and Ruby Silk. Editor: Christian Skrivervik.