Actuality: The European Union's response to cushion the economic shock is divided into two parts, given the separation of competences at EU and nation state level.The global economy is increasingly recovering from the Corona crisis, but its effects continue to shape economic development. At the same time, the profound transformation towards a climate-neutral and digital economy must be shaped. National measures and strategies must be developed in the European and global context to effectively meet the challenges. Education over the entire life cycle should be strengthened. Accelerated digitalisation offers great potentials that need to be leveraged. Sustainability must be ensured in various dimensions. International cooperation is crucial for successful climate protection. Higher private and public investments must be mobilised for transformation and increased productivity. In all of this, fiscal sustainability must be ensured. Purpose: Climate protection is a global challenge. The risks of climate change and the economic opportunities of the necessary transformation are heterogeneously distributed worldwide. Progress in global cooperation should be promoted through burden sharing and technology cooperation. This should significantly strengthen private investments worldwide. The establishment of a climate club and investment protection agreements are important elements of international climate policy. Trade agreements should consider the close links between trade and climate. However, costs and benefits must be weighed up. Research: The publication in concern is based on the foremost recent expert evaluations of the European Commission, EU Parliament, EU Central Bank, the recent evaluations and publications of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection of Germany, Methods: Application of the scenario number 4 of the Whitebook of the European Union. Results: A global solution is needed to effectively curb climate change. Progress in multilateral negotiations has been very slow in the past. Building on the Paris Climate Agreement, trust between the Parties should be strengthened in order to make mechanisms capable of gaining majority support in the medium term, which strengthen climate protection efforts and the willingness to cooperate in an international context. The international climate financing and technology transferprovided for in the Paris Agreement play a central role in strengthening this trust. By making it easier for developing and emerging countries to implement their climate policies and improving the framework conditions, they can mobilise private investment and thus facilitate transformation. Innovations are central to driving forward the diverse transformation processes. In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, it will be important to bring new technologies to market maturity and make them quickly available worldwide. The production of renewable energies and their transport in the form of hydrogen or synthetic energy carriers can pave the way to climate neutrality and at the same time open up new business opportunities for European and German companies. The foundations for this can already be laid today, for example through bilateral partnerships. Climatedamaging subsidies, on the other hand, distort trade and prevent innovation in technologies that are relevant to solving the climate problem. Europe should step up their efforts to ensure that these subsidies are dismantled everywhere.