Without global awareness, Europe's transition to a "net zero" will be a zero-sum game. What have you done for the planet today? Did you turn off the lights or turn down the heat? Did you pay a bit more for carbon neutral eggs and look for vegetables in season? Have you given up meat this week or forever? For many Europeans concerned about sustainability – around 93 percent according to recent figures – such questions are a constant and disturbing presence. Ninety-six percent may have taken at least one action to combat climate change, but there's still a lingering sense of guilt about not doing enough—of over-indulging, of momentarily forgetting about the looming dangers of the air. The basic framework for global climate action is the nationally declared contributions that UN member states submit every five years to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Climate Action Tracker ranks their ambitions - from "critically inadequate" by Turkey, Iran, Thailand, Mexico and others to "nearly adequate" efforts by Nepal, Norway, Ethiopia and the UK. The member states of the European Union fall somewhere in the middle and as a whole are only considered "inadequate". Nevertheless, the continent's leaders inform us that we are on the right track. The European Commission declares the European Green Deal will mean "no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050", with "economic growth decoupled from resource use" and "no person and no place left behind". The EU has achieved its goal of reducing emissions by 20 percent between 1990 and 2020, reversing more than half a century of increases. So it might seem that the promises are being fulfilled and we can feel less anxious. But that's not the whole story. (Laurie Parsonová, Social Europe)