The article draws on an integrative literature review that compiles and discusses the findings of 26 discursive policy analyses of the EGD, with a particular focus on how the concepts of sustainable development and transformation are translated into policies intended to govern the green transition. The integrative review shows how previous research has particularly analysed the EGD in relation to the scope and orientation of the agenda, its efforts to gain legitimacy among relevant actors, and the justice dimension of the green transition.
Regarding the scope and orientation of the EGD, earlier research concludes that the agenda carries a transformative discourse in the sense that it brings environmental and climate issues to the foreground more clearly than its predecessors did. At the same time, its orientation is rooted in an eco-modernist perspective, in which the climate crisis is also viewed as an economic opportunity best addressed through economic growth, competitiveness, and green technology. The need for a changed economic system or behavioural change is, however, not highlighted as essential for achieving the green transition.
In its attempt to gain legitimacy, the literature review shows that the agenda is closely linked to other EU legislation in order to reduce potential conflicts between the instruments required for the green transition and other legislative and policy packages within the EU. This has contributed to clear gaps within certain parts of the EGD between its stated objectives and the tools available to implement them. In seeking legitimacy for the EGD among European citizens and institutions, the EU has primarily drawn on existing narratives of green growth and capitalist welfare, which already enjoy strong support. In doing so, they have also succeeded in tempering critical voices raised against the agenda.
With respect to the question of a just green transition, the review finds that the Green Deal makes relatively few references to inequality and social rights, with the exception of the need for education and green skills. It also tends to downplay the economic injustices that may arise from the green transition. Likewise, it does not take into account the injustices that the green transition—and the implementation of the EGD — risks to create in other parts of the world. For this reason, some previous research argues that the EGD has become a way for the EU to exert continued colonial oppression.
In summary, the authors show how concepts such as transformation and sustainable development, within the EGD, are filled with discourses that strip them of their radical and transformative content. This is done by articulating them in ways that reproduce dominant agendas and assumptions about what constitutes development and success, and by aligning with already existing centres of power (i.e., Europe and the Western world).
The article is freely available in the journal Sustainable Development.
Enberg, C., and C. Ståhl. 2025. “Tangled Up in Green: A Review of Policy Analyses of the European Green Deal.” Sustainable Development 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70409