Climate Change Policy in the European Union - Confronting the Dilemmas of Mitigation and Adaptation. Edited by Andrew Jordan, Dave Huitema, Harro Van Asselt, Tim Rayner and Frans Berkhout * Climate Change Law and Policy: EU and US Approaches. By Cinnamon Pinon Carlarne

Abstract

These volumes have a quite contrasting focus, although each is of interest to environmental lawyers seeking fuller understanding of the kinds of daunting problems with which they, in common with colleagues in other ‘climate’ disciplines, are now confronted. Carlarne, a lawyer, gives an invigorating account of the essential differences between the US responses to climate change (in which the federal government has lagged some way behind states and other institutional collaborators) and responses in the European Union (EU). Governed perhaps by context, she is broadly positive as to the performance to date in terms of global leadership of the EU, although on some levels this is a somewhat roseate view. The focus of the Jordan et al collection enables a touch more questioning of the realities of EU achievements thus far, with policy perspectives on possible directions of travel for the future. Turning first to Carlarne, after a sketched history of international climate politics and legal structures (taking up Part I, Chapter I), the burden of this book is devoted to the task of explanation and analysis of the respective experiences of climate law in the USA and the EU, and offering an evaluation from a comparative perspective of key features elicited throughout.