In 2019, the European Commission announced the ‘European Green Deal’ (EGD) (European Commission, 2019). Fundamentally, this broad policy package saw European Union (EU) institutions bolster their climate change mitigation commitments by agreeing to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050 with an interim target of reducing GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. In 2021, both targets were enshrined in the European climate law, which makes them binding for EU countries (European Commission: Directorate General for Communication, 2021). To meet these targets, the EU has planned a series of reforms across various sectors of the economy. Many of these reforms target greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions occurring beyond EU Member States’ borders and include provisions that seek to incentivize other countries and United Nations (UN) regulatory bodies to implement more ambitious climate policies. EU trade partners and scholars alike have expressed concerns about the impacts of these reforms on trade opportunities and cooperation on climate change, and have questioned their effectiveness in driving emission reductions and their alignment with equity-related principles of the international climate change regime (Böhringer et al., 2022; Dominioni & Esty, 2023; Kotzampasakis, 2023). While the EGD posits a just transition as a core tenet, it is unclear what precisely a just transition means and which areas of the planet it includes. Ultimately, achieving a just transition will largely depend on how different EGD policies are designed, implemented, and enforced — both from a distributional and a procedural justice perspective. In this context, many questions remain around the power differentials in EU actions, the effectiveness and direction of diffusion of norms and policies, and where and how possible spaces for cooperation exist, amongst other things. Work on the EGD has largely been undertaken amid significant socio-economic pressures and shifts in the international context, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis and subsequent high inflation, and the re-election of Trump to the White House. These have prompted additional action from the EU and its Member States to diversify energy sources, restructure global supply chains, and re-think the balance between climate action and competitiveness. As the EU works to navigate this new reality, the external dimensions of the EGD become even more relevant, as they provide new risks and opportunities to reshape diplomatic and trade relations between the EU and non-EU member states. In this context, this special issue contributes to the ongoing scholarly debate about the EGD and its external dimensions by building on three broad themes: power dynamics between the EU and third countries, policy diffusion, and international cooperation on climate change.