EUROPEAN UNION IN GLOBAL CLIMATE GOVERNANCE: TO PARIS AND BEYOND

E V Savorskaya

doi:10.18611/2221-3279-2016-7-3(24)-71-84

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the European Union is aspiring global leadership in the area of climate change, which is refl ected in its active participation in the negotiations on the international climate change regime. However, those ambitions have not always turned out to be appropriate or justifi ed. Despite the fact that the European Union was able to achieve certain results during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and even more signifi cant results in the process of its ratifi cation, for the most part EU negotiation strategy based on normative considerations, had not been successful, it was especially evident during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Partly the disappointing results of EU performance during the Copenhagen negotiations are to be blamed on some of the key features of EU functioning logic, for example, the overall tendency to rely on scientifi c evidence in policy-making, which did not allow the EU to assess other parties’ interests adequately. As the results of the negotiations of parties to the UNFCCC in December 2015 in Paris have shown, the European Union did manage to work out its previous mistakes and build a broad informal international coalition. Contrary to the pessimistic expectations, the agreement was adopted and it took into account quite a few of the EU proposals. However, the Paris Treaty has a number of fl aws and inaccuracies, so the ability to eliminate them in a timely manner by the international community and the EU in particular, will determine the future of the new international climate change regime.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, the European Union is aspiring global leadership in the area of climate change, which is reflected in its active participation in the negotiations on the international climate change regime
Despite the fact that the European Union was able to achieve certain results during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and even more significant results in the process of its ratification, for the most part EU negotiation strategy based on normative considerations, had not been successful, it was especially evident during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
The Paris Treaty has a number of flaws and inaccuracies, so the ability to eliminate them in a timely manner by the international community and the EU in particular, will determine the future of the new international climate change regime

Summary

Trends in global CO2 emissions

2014 Report / PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2014. Mode of access: http://edgar.jrc. ec.europa.eu/news_docs/jrc-2014-trends-inglobal-co2-emissions-2014-report-93171.pdf. This fact has not been ignored by the EU, and after 2005 it launched bilateral dialogue processes and signed bilateral agreements on cooperation in the climate field with Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Russia, the USA, South Africa and Japan in order to provide some support for internal European climate change policy development and, more importantly, to stand a chance to influence the negotiating position of these countries It seemed that in 2009 the American administration of the newly elected Barack Obama was ready to support the EU global climate change policy vision at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Copenhagen. Mode of access: http://unfccc.int/key_steps/doha_climate_ gateway/items/7389.php countries are only responsible for 14% of global GHG emissions, the US, Canada, Russia and Japan did not sign the amendment.

36 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council

Findings

45 Historic Climate Deal in Paris