Handbook On European Union Climate Change Policy And Politics

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Through detailed and wide-ranging analysis, the Handbook on European Union Climate Change Policy and Politics provides a critical assessment of current and emerging challenges facing the EU in committing to and delivering increasingly ambitious climate policy objectives. Highlighting the importance of topics such as finance and investment, litigation, ‘hard to abate’ sectors and negative emissions, it offers an up-to-date exploration of the complexities of climate politics and policy making.

Climate change poses one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. The European Union (EU) has developed into a leader in international climate change politics although it was originally set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’ in which decision-making powers are spread amongst EU institutional, member state and societal actors. The central aim of this book, which is written by leading experts in the field, is to explain what kind of leadership has been offered by EU institutional, member state and societal actors. Although leadership is the overarching theme of the book, all chapters also address ecological modernisation, policy instruments, and multi-level governance as additional main themes. The book chapters focus on the Commission, European Parliament, European Council and Council of Ministers as well as member states (Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain) and societal actors (businesses and environmental NGOs). Additional chapters analyse the EU as a global actor and the climate change policies of America and China and how they have responded to the EU’s ambitions. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental politics, EU politics, comparative politics and international relations as well as to practitioners who deal with EU and/or climate change issues.

In recent years climate change has emerged as an issue of central political importance while the EU has become a major player in international climate change politics. How can a ‘leaderless Europe’ offer leadership in international climate change politics - even in the wake of the UK’s Brexit decision? This book, which has been written by leading experts, offers a critical analysis of the EU leadership role in international climate change politics. It focuses on the main EU institutions, core EU member states and central societal actors (businesses and environmental NGOs). It also contains an external perspective of the EU’s climate change leadership role with chapters on China, India and the USA as well as Norway. Four core themes addressed in the book are: leadership, multilevel and polycentric governance, policy instruments, and the green and low carbon economy. Fundamentally, it asks why we have EU institutional actors, why certain member states and particular societal actors tried to take on a leadership role in climate change politics and how, if at all, have they managed to achieve this? This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU studies and politics, international relations, comparative politics and environmental politics.

The Politics of Climate Change provides a critical analysis of the political, moral and legal response to climate change in the midst of significant socio-economic policy shifts. Evolving from original EC commissioned research, this book examines how climate change was put on the policy agenda, with the evolution of the United Nations Framework Convention and subsequent Conference of Parties. The international team of contributors devote in-depth chapters to: * climate change policies of different nations * reductions of greenhouse gas emmissions * legal aspects of external competence and moral obligatons * the political significance of the European experience within the wider global perspectives of America and Asia.

This book is likely to become the definitive study on European global climate change politics. Its focus on the formulation, ratification, and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol within Europe make it essential reading for all who wish to understand how domestic foreign policy influenced the European Union s decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol despite the United States decision to abandon the agreement. The book provides important historical background, case studies of the most influential European countries to shape the Kyoto Protocol, and an assessment of what enlargement means for the implementation of the agreement. It also examines how Europe s policies have shaped and been shaped by participation in the Kyoto negotiation and implementation processes. It will be an important item for the libraries of any institution or scholar with an interest in the role of Europe in addressing climate change. Miranda Schreurs, University of Maryland, US The core objective of this book is to better understand the role of foreign policy the crossovers and interactions between domestic and international politics and policies in efforts to preserve the environment and natural resources. Underlying this objective is the belief that it is not enough to analyze domestic or international political actors, institutions and processes by themselves. We need to understand the interactions among them, something that explicit thought about foreign policy can help us do. The eclectic group of contributors explore European and EU responses to global climate change, and provide insights into issues on environmental protection, sustainable development, international affairs and foreign policy.

The European Union has long played a leadership role in the global response to climate change, including the development and dissemination of climate-friendly technologies such as renewable energy. EU diplomacy has been a vital contributor to the development of international cooperation on climate change through the agreement of the United Nations Climate Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and, most recently, the Paris Agreement. In addition, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States means that the EU contribution to climate diplomacy will become more important still, both in filling the leadership gap (together with other major economies) and in responding to any sabotage by the Trump administration. This book will extend knowledge of the EU as a key actor in climate diplomacy by bringing together leading practitioners and researchers in this field to take stock of the EU’s current role and emerging issues. Contributions will be grouped into three strands: 1) the interplay between EU climate diplomacy and internal EU politics; 2) how the EU’s legal order is a factor that determines, enables and constrains its climate diplomacy; and 3) the EU’s contribution to diplomacy concerning climate technology both under the Climate Convention and more broadly. Collectively, these contributions will chart the EU’s role at a critical time of transition and uncertainty in the international response to climate change. EU Climate Diplomacy: Politics, Law and Negotiations will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policymakers with an interest in international climate politics and policy, transnational environmental law and politics and EU studies more generally.

The European Union (EU) has emerged as a leading governing body in the international struggle to govern climate change. The transformation that has occurred in its policies and institutions has profoundly affected climate change politics at the international level and within its 27 Member States. But how has this been achieved when the EU comprises so many levels of governance, when political leadership in Europe is so dispersed and the policy choices are especially difficult? Drawing on a variety of detailed case studies spanning the interlinked challenges of mitigation and adaptation, this volume offers an unrivalled account of how different actors wrestled with the complex governance dilemmas associated with climate policy making. Opening up the EU's inner workings to non-specialists, it provides a perspective on the way that the EU governs, as well as exploring its ability to maintain a leading position in international climate change politics.

This book examines the European Union (EU)'s contribution to the development of the global climate regime within the broader framework of global justice. It argues that the procedural dimension of justice has been largely overlooked so far in the assessment of EU climate policy and reveals that the EU has significantly contributed to the development of the climate regime within its broader efforts to ‘solidarise’ international society. At the same time, the book identifies deficits of the climate regime and limits to the EU’s impact, and explains why the EU policy towards global climate change has shifted over time. Finally, it argues that these policies should not be assessed in terms of being wholly positive or wholly negative, but that they are shot through with ambiguities. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of climate change, climate politics, and environmental and climate justice studies, and more broadly to EU Studies and International Relations.