The European Union and Climate Change: Leading the Way towards a Post-2012 Regime?

Observers of past and current negotiations on international climate policy are likely to agree that the European Union has been a consistent advocate of stringent mitigation commitments, often calling for more ambitious climate efforts against strong resistance in several industrialised and developing countries.

Going by its own statements, Europe has increasingly assumed the role of a climate leader, and is consciously fostering this perception both towards its Member States and in its relations with third states. Such leadership can manifest itself in many ways, and the European Union has been described as a structural leader by virtue of its membership, combined population and economic power, but also as a directional and instrumental leader for setting an example through domestic policies and building dynamic coalitions within the international community Upon closer examination, however, the genesis and implementation of climate policies within the Union and its Member States give rise to a more differentiated picture. Domestically, affected industries and other stakeholders do not always stand behind the climate initiatives engendered in faraway Brussels, and even Member States often allow national interests to interfere with the straightforward implementation of common policies; and internationally, the European Union has often been challenged to formulate a “consensus among many voices”, a challenge that will arguably become no easier in the wake of its recent enlargement. Even its success in actually reducing greenhouse gases may fall short of the espoused ambition, with past reductions owed in no small part to the collapse of heavy industries in former central economies. While Europe in its entirety may still be able – albeit barely – to meet its reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol,7 several Member States are far from achieving compliance with their national targets.



Copyright: © Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Quelle: Issue 1/2007 (September 2007)
Seiten: 8
Preis: € 16,00
Autor: Michael Mehling
Leonardo Massai
 
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