Sustainable Superpowers

Abstract

Global warming and climate change are part of one of the biggest crises of our time. Biodiversity loss, deforestation and overfishing is exhausting our earth. Humans have realized these problems must be handled for decades, but there is little consensus on how. The term ‘sustainable development’ refers to providing solutions for these environmental problems, while also ensuring economic growth and providing for future generations. Both the European Union and the United States have formed plans to tackle climate change and environmental issues, by transforming the economy. The Green New Deal in the US was presented in February 2019, but it failed to advance in the Senate. In December 2019, the European Green Deal was presented, and in January 2020 it was accepted by the European Parliament. This raises the question why this plan was accepted in the EU, but a similar plan was not accepted in the US. In this thesis, three possible explanations are analysed, that led to the following conclusions. The discourse has developed similarly in the EU and the US since the 1990’s. A SMART-analysis has shown that the goals in the Green New Deal are formulated less detailed. The biggest difference is seen in the measurability, most goals in the GND are not measurable at all. Lastly, a network analysis has shown that climate change denial is very apparent in US politics, which explains the resistance against the plan.