Following the publication of the Think 2030 report and its 30 key recommendations for a more sustainable Europe ahead of 2030, the Institute for European Environmental Policy carried out an analysis of the manifestos of European parties for the European parliamentary elections in May 2019. After analysing each party’s programme, an overall analysis was made.

The objective is to assess commitments on sustainability issues by comparing them with:

–              2014 manifestos,

–              Think 2030 recommendations,

–              International commitments of the EU,

–              The 7th Environmental Action Plan and the European Environmental Agency environmental indicator report 2018 published in November.

For some key conclusions, we can say that while the parties attempt to respond to citizens’ concerns on climate change, the proposals are on average not likely to be enough to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Furthermore, with the possible exception of the Greens, proposals on biodiversity are woefully inadequate compared with conclusions from leading scientists and experts regarding the scale of the crisis and the urgency of action.