In November 2018, the European Commission published its Strategic Long-Term Vision entitled "A Clean Planet for all" calling for the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This proposal was subsequently agreed upon by EU heads of state and government, it features centrally in the European Green Deal and has now been made a legally binding objective in the EU Climate Law. The Strategic Long-Term Vision was supported by a detailed In-depth Analysis. The central objective of the work presented in this report was to assess the European Commission's Strategic Long-Term Vision and supplementary materials and reflect on them in light of state-of-the-art sector analyses.

The report is a summary of a series of publications. These publications provide insights on the In-depth Analysis along with an assessment of the role of the Strategic Vision and how it can be turned into an effective long-term strategy for the EU. In addition, sector analyses for the transport sector, the industry sector and the buildings sector provide insights on the action needed to reach long-term decarbonisation in those sectors. An assessment of the inception impact assessment to the Effort Sharing Regulation shed light on different options for a meaningful combination of CO₂ pricing (emissions trading) and regulation under the Effort Sharing Regulation. Lastly, a stocktake on the overall landscape of EU climate governance as of autumn of 2021 identified remaining weaknesses and recommends ways to strengthen the existing processes to ensure that they can get the EU on a path towards climate neutrality. A central recommendation is the call for an update to the EU long-term strategy as a central hub to provide oversight and guidance for sectoral and horizontal strategies, as well as the next policy package (beyond 2030) that is due in 2024.