Introduction

The new European Commission, chaired by Ursula Von der Leyen, has made the environment and climate the central parameters of European policy, both internal and international, for the period 2020-2025. As such, the European Green Deal has set itself the goal of making Europe the “first climate neutral” continent by 2050.
It has been five years since the Paris Agreements was agreed. The Paris Agreement outlines the pathway towards carbon neutrality achievement of a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs in the second half of this century (Article 4.1). This pathway is framed by the Paris Agreement temperature goal to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Thus, the cost of climate policy – which is in no way compa- rable to the cost of previous environmental policies – is expected to increase as abatement measures gradually extend to ensure a broader decarbonization of the economy over the half of this century.