Introduction: European Union political leadership in international climate change politics

Abstract

At the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century, few still doubt that climate change poses one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. Certainly, the European Union (EU)2 and most of its Member States have made climate change a major political priority. For Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso ‘[r]esponding to the challenge of climate change is the ultimate political test for our generation’ (CEC 2008: 2). Early scientifi c discoveries about anthropogenic climate change can be traced to the nineteenth century (Rowlands 1995). However, it was only in the late 1970s that the fi rst international meetings on climate change took place. The ‘traditional position has been that only states are recognised as having legal personality in international law and therefore only states are capable of maintaining rights and contracting responsibilities’ (Macrory and Hession 1996: 133-34). It was therefore not a foregone conclusion that the EU would become an independent actor in international climate change politics. In the environmental policy fi eld,3 it was the negotiations for international treaties to protect the stratospheric ozone layer which allowed the EU to establish its international ‘actorness’ (Vogler 1999; Chapter 2 by Vogler). However, while the EU acted as an environmental laggard in relation to ozone layer deple - tion diplomacy (dragged along by the USA’s determined leadership), in international climate change politics by contrast it early took on the role of an environmental leader (Compston and Bailey (2008); Damro and MacKenzie 2008; Grubb and Gupta 2000; Schreurs and Tiberghien 2007). Broadly speaking the following four phases of EU climate change policy can be identifi ed: (1) late 1980s to 1992: formation and formulation phase; (2) 1992-2001: Kyoto protocol negotiation phase; (3) 2001-5: Kyoto protocol rescue phase; and (4) since 2005: implementation phase and Kyoto protocol follow-up agreement negotiation phase. Importantly, as is explained in more detail in the following chapters, various EU institutional actors, Member States and societal actors reacted differently to the challenge of global climate change while making use of the changing opportunity structures when trying to infl uence EU climate change policy: from their pe rspective the phases might appear differently.