Climate Change Law and Policy in the European Union

Author(s):  
Sanja Bogojević

This chapter is concerned with EU’s climate change law and its impact on climate change action at a global level. It investigates whether the international climate change regime ‘tightens’ its own standards so as to match EU climate change law. The corpus of EU climate change law is codified in the Climate and Energy Package, which aims to provide a comprehensive and integrated climate change framework. It includes measures promoting the use of renewable energy, specifying and thus helping to monitor and reduce greenhouse gases from fuel, setting standards for new passenger cars, establishing a framework for the geological storage of carbon dioxide, outlining the effort of Member States to reduce greenhouse gases to meet the 2020 commitments, as well as revising the EU emissions trading regime (ETS).

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Tomescu ◽  
Scott Brockett ◽  
Martina Doppelhammer

AbstractThe 2007 Spring European Council called for the European Union (EU) to be at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change and endorsed ambitious targets aimed at setting the European energy system on a sustainable path. To ensure that these targets are met, the European Commission put forward a set of proposed policy instruments, the Climate and Energy Package, in January 2008. A key element of the adopted Package is the proposed Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide, a technology which can help tackle emissions from energy generation from fossil fuel sources which will otherwise compromise EU climate objectives. This paper lays out policy options to incentivise the deployment of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in the EU and presents the proposed Directive.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-322
Author(s):  
Arie Afriansyah

Throughout the international climate change regime’s development up until 2012, the emergence of new and helpful mechanisms and negotiation processes were often accompanied by setbacks such as withdrawals and unmet State obligation. The object of this study focused on international community and indonesia’s policy towards climate change. The Method of this study is normative legal research. The result of this thesis is to situate the internal/domestic climate of several States (the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Norway, and Indonesia) and one regional organization (the EU); and connect it to the outward international policies each have chosen to put forward on the negotiation table and/or submit themselves to. Given the global nature of and concern about climate change, it feels as if there is no shortage of lessons to pick – from outright refusal to be legally bound to the regime at all (the U.S.), an unprecedented and recent move of formal and official withdrawal from the regime’s key instrument (Canada), the struggles with implementation that a regional organization might face (the European Union), to the recent moves and measures in environmental protection pioneered and led by States characterized by their increasingly strong economies (Brazil, Norway, and Indonesia).


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-461
Author(s):  
Peter Palinkas

The EU has always tried to play a major role in coordinating the activities of its now 15 Member States in the broad area of climate change policy. This active role of the EU was demonstrated in the first climate protection negotiations (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the follow-up conferences (Berlin 1995 and Geneva 1996) and finally at the Kyoto-Conference in December 1997. At the Kyoto-Conference the EU negotiators had to abandon their original negotiating position of 15% reduction based on three greenhouse gases. The final Protocol requires a collective EU reduction by 8% based on 6 gases. This modification is, however, closer to the initial EU position than it indicates, since the final commitment based on six gases is roughly equivalent to a 13% reduction based on 3 gases only. Further compromise made by the EU was on the issue of differentiation. Keeping the “EU-bubble” approach, the EU had to accept country-specific reduction targets as initially proposed by the Japanese delegation. The EU also had to agree on including emissions-trading and joint implementation in the Protocol. During the negotiations EU representatives expressed their concern that trading must not become a substitute for any domestic actions. Consequently, in the Protocol any emission trading is declared as supplementary to domestic actions. Despite the number of unavoidable concessions made by the EU negotiators, the European Commission recognized that the Kyoto protocol is an important first step toward reversing the upward trend in the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the EU Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard expressed a certain disappointment in not reaching agreement on even more ambitious commitments.


2010 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
José M. Portela ◽  
Andrés Pastor ◽  
Milagros M. Huerta ◽  
Manuel Otero ◽  
Rafael E. González

Climate change and increasing energy prices threaten the planet and the economy. The European Union has promised to take the lead, through a reduction in greenhouse gases by 20 to 30% and a 20% energy savings by 2020. In this context, the EU is about to ban some of the most inefficient lightbulbs for everyday. Lighting would set the limit at the level of CFLs/LEDs (most energy efficient existing lamps). The energy savings would be maximized, the target is 86 TWh of electricity saved per year in the EU by 2020. To discover how to use different materials in this technology is a high-priority as it shows the advance; maybe this is the future of lighting.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabell Böhm

Climate change litigation is becoming increasingly important. This thesis deals with the question whether state liability claims against Germany or the EU can be justified, if commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not met. For this purpose, the claim under public liability according to § 839 German Civil Code in connection with Art. 34 German Basic Law, the liability of the EU-Member States and the liability of the European Union according to Art. 340 II TFEU are discussed. At the end of the thesis, considerations on the practical perspectives of state liability are made in order to improve their prospects of success.


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Shatokha

The role of European Union in defining of the international climate change mitigation policy was studied in the historic context of overcoming the differences in the approaches to reaching the sustainable development targets among the EU, the USA, China and some other influential countries. It has been shown that currently the processes of climate policy definition became more polycentric than in 1992, when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed. The ability to adjust to a new context, to build coalitions and to reach compromise with the wide range of international actors has been crucial for maintaining the EU’s influence on definition of the international climate change mitigation policy. Despite not always supportive internal and external factors, during a quarter of century the EU has managed to maintain its leadership and many times helped to enhance the ambition of global climatic targets by establishing the high level of own commitments and implementing relevant policy instruments. The EU and its members played a decisive role in ensuring of the non-interruptive international climate action during implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and in setting of the Paris Agreement which will define climate regime after 2020. Mitigation of climate change is a complicated task not only in terms of technology and socio-economic aspects but also with respect to policy implementation. Therefore the EU leadership in this sphere remains very important.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandi Knez ◽  
Snežana Štrbac ◽  
Iztok Podbregar

Abstract Background: The European Commission (EC), based on the European Green Deal (2019) and the Recovery plan for Europe (2021) envisages investing 30% of the budget in climate-related programs, projects, and initiatives, which clearly shows Europe's commitment to becoming the first climate-neutral region by 2050. Activities are also planned for countries that are not members of the European Union (EU), which requires complex changes in the field of legislation, strategic planning, implementation, and monitoring. To successfully plan short-term and long-term activities on these grounds, it is necessary to have a realistic picture of the state of climate change in each country - as they spill over into the entire region of Europe. The main objective of this paper is to present the state of climate change in six Western Balkans countries, of which only Croatia is a member of the EU, for the needs of planning activities and initial harmonization with the EU plan to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050. Results: The main results of the research show that in all countries of the region, the average annual temperature increased by 1.2 °C compared to 1970, with stabilization and the beginning of the decline which can be expected around 2040. The main reasons for climate change in the region are: industry, energy, and heating sector based on coal exploitation, low energy efficiency, etc. Conclusions: It can be concluded that all countries of the Western Balkans have adopted (or are in the process of adopting) the necessary regulations and strategies towards climate change mitigation, but the implementation of specific activities is at a low level. The reasons for this most often lies in the insufficient commitment of decision-makers to make significant changes in the field of climate change transition (lower level of economic development, lack of investment, preservation of social peace). Finally, the paper provides an overview of climate change by country, scenario analysis, and policy recommendations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Omer Ugur ◽  
Kadir Caner Dogan ◽  
Metin Aksoy

The European Union has grown up in terms of influence and size in international politics. The size of its economy and the ever-increasing membership, have seen its ambitions grow meaning that the EU now has an international presence it did not have at its formation. It is easy to say that with the EU being an ambitious actor in international politics, the rise into prominence of climate change naturally came in handy for the EU as it provided an opportunity for the EU to assert itself and prove both its capacity and presence. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the withdrawal of the USA from the obligations of the Kyoto came as a blessing in disguise for the Union as it seized the moment to assert itself. Thus, in trying to understand what role the EU has or is playing in international climate change politics, there is need to assess its leadership claims and what it has done to prove these claims. To get there, the paper will navigate through a part of the discipline of International Relations (IR) to understand how it provides for a basis to explain or understand the EU’s limitations and strengths on actorness.


2013 ◽  
pp. 143-146
Author(s):  
Orsolya Nagy

The use of renewable energies has a long past, even though its share of the total energy use is rather low in European terms. However, the tendencies are definitely favourable which is further strengthened by the dedication of the European Union to sustainable development and combat against climate change. The European Union is on the right track in achieving its goal which is to be able to cover 20% its energy need from renewable energy resources by 2020. The increased use of wind, solar, water, tidal, geothermal and biomass energy will reduce the energy import dependence of the European Union and it will stimulate innovation.


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