EU Climate Policy under the Paris Agreement

Abstract The European Union has long sought to play a leadership role in the international response to climate change. As part of the “European Green Deal”, it announced new wide-ranging plans to step up its ambition, and in December 2020 updated its mitigation target under the Paris Agreement to an at-least 55 per cent reduction by 2030 compared to the 1990 level. In this article, I provide a legal analysis of the new EU climate change policy as outlined in the European Commission’s Stepping Up Europe’s 2030 Climate Ambition (September 2020) in light of the Paris Agreement itself and other norms of international environmental law. I find that the European Union provides a degree of leadership in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, but that there are also areas of concern, in particular the missing notification of member states’ individual emission levels as part of a joint ndc under Article 4 of the Paris Agreement.

Download Full-text

European Union as a Leader in Climate Change Policy: Assessing Europe’s Roles in the World∗

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n5p285 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 285

Author(s):

Omer Ugur ◽

Kadir Caner Dogan ◽

Metin Aksoy

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

European Union ◽

International Politics ◽

Climate Change Policy ◽

The European Union ◽

Change Policy ◽

The Usa ◽

The Moment ◽

Climate Change Politics ◽

The Eu

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.

Download Full-text

Understanding the Paradoxes of Multilevel Governing: Climate Change Policy in the European Union

Global Environmental Politics ◽

10.1162/glep_a_00108 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 43-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Andrew Jordan ◽

Harro van Asselt ◽

Frans Berkhout ◽

Dave Huitema ◽

Tim Rayner

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

European Union ◽

Climate Change Policy ◽

The European Union ◽

Climate Governance ◽

Paradoxical Situation ◽

Change Policy ◽

Leading Position ◽

Multi Level ◽

The Eu

The European Union (EU) has sought to lead the world in the adoption of ambitious climate change mitigation targets and policies. In an attempt to characterize and broadly explain the resulting pattern of EU climate governance, scholars have employed the term “multi-level reinforcement.” This term does help to account for the paradoxical situation whereby the EU seeks to lead by example but is itself a relatively leaderless system of governance. Drawing on a much fuller empirical account of the evolution of EU climate governance, this article finds that the term captures some but not all aspects of the EU's approach. It identifies four other paradoxical features of the EU's approach and assesses the extent to which they exhibit “multi-level reinforcement.” It concludes by looking forward and examining the extent to which all five features are expected to enable and/or constrain the EU's ability to maintain a leading position in climate governance.

Download Full-text