Ursula von der Leyen began

In 2019, Ursula von der Leyen began her first mandate as European Commission president during a period of remarkable public and political support for climate action. Climate change had topped many EU citizens’ lists of concerns that year, which had contributed to a strong showing for the Greens in the European Parliament election (the “green wave”). It was in that context that von der Leyen launched the European Green Deal – a sweeping set of policy initiatives that aimed to transform Europe into the world’s first carbon-neutral continent by 2050 ufabet