(Bloomberg) -- On Dec. 11, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined a plan to steer the European Union onto a new path that combined economic growth, social justice, and the fight against climate change—a Green Deal. “This is Europe’s ‘man on the moon’ moment,” said the newly installed leader of the EU’s executive branch.

Within three months the Green Deal had become something else entirely: a way out of the worst economic crisis in a generation, if not ever. In May the commission proposed a €750 billion ($826 billion) recovery package that redoubles its commitment to the Green Deal. “With the new package we also commit to do no harm with regard to our climate ambitions,” Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters the day after the announcement.

The EU’s recovery plan is the greenest in the world so far. The sums involved represent a “huge opportunity,” says Nick Robins, a professor at the London School of Economics who studied the 2008 response as a former analyst at HSBC. “We are coming to the end of Chapter 1 where key players have said we need a sustainable recovery, and the issue now is implementation.”

But despite Von der Leyen and others’ enthusiasm, some EU members have expressed reluctance about the idea of working toward climate goals while also staring down a deep recession and facing myriad demands on public budgets. In May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s parliamentary bloc said it wanted other EU states to take on more responsibility for reducing emissions, a sign richer countries are reluctant to shoulder the burden of combating climate change alone.

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