From Kyoto to Paris: the European Union's contribution to a new world climate order

Abstract

The European Union (EU)’s climate policy is closely linked to its commitments under the international regime of the United Nations (UN). The Union was a party to the Kyoto Protocol; it contributed to its ratification and largely surpassed its mitigation obligations during the first commitment period (2008-2012). It is currently one of the few developed parties with voluntary mitigation obligations for the second Kyoto commitment period (2013-2020), whose scope and contents draw critically on the EU 2020 climate-energy package. While implementing this binding framework, the EU is giving legal contents to the 2030 climate-energy package as a major contribution to the new international climate regime under the Paris Agreement, in whose design and adoption the Union also played a key role. Recent policies and other proposals now in prospect are intended to transform the EU into a competitive and sustainable economy by 2050. The new measures also signal the way for further collective action beyond 2025 under the Paris Agreement.