EU LEADERSHIP ON CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY

EU Leadership on Climate Change Policy

EU climate change policy

Abstract

This paper analyzes the European Union leadership role in climate change politics. More specifically, the aim of the thesis is to explain the motivations that have driven the EU to take on this role. For this reason, it looks at the evolution of EU climate change policy. Also, it examines the concept of leadership and the nature of the EU leadership role in global climate change politics. Arguing that a purely interest based explanation is not enough to understand the motivations behind this role, we use role theory, an underdeveloped theory in International Relations, but which provides through its concepts a valuable explanation to my research question. The paper concludes that at the bottom of the EU leadership role in climate change politics lie both normative objectives and economic interests which are informed by EU norms and principles.

Literature Review

Prelude

Climate change has become a very important issue in European and international politics. It is regularly discussed at the European level and taken also priority in G-8 Summits and has been placed high on the UN agenda, becoming an issue of 'high politics'. Climate change represents not only a serious threat for the present generation but also for human kind in general. The transboundary nature of climate change makes it impossible for states to deal alone with this problem. The only solution to fight climate change is cooperation, as the problem is neither national, nor regional, but global (Buell, 2008, 66).

The Rio Summit in 1992 was the first international attempt to find solutions against climate change and its effects. The Summit witnessed the emergence of a new green leader, the EU. Since then, the EU has claimed to be a leader in climate change politics and references depicting the EU as a leader in this field are found not only in EU documents, but also in others' comments about the EU's role in climate change politics. Therefore, the topic of this dissertation is to analyze the leadership role of the European Union (EU) in global climate change politics. The topic has received an increased attention in the last decade. Most of the research conducted on this topic, however, is descriptive seeking to explain how the EU managed to take on this role, linking this success to the improvement and advances in EU internal environmental policy and to the organization and coordination of its external climate policy.

In contrast, the research question of this thesis is why the EU has taken on the leadership role in climate change politics. Is it interest based or another face of its normative power? The paper seeks to examine the motivations behind the EU's leadership role using a theoretical perspective. Role theory, because of it actor-cantered approach and its valuable concepts, will be chosen as the most appropriate way to explain the motivation behind the EU leadership (Perry, 2007, 89).

Case Study Method

The empirical analysis of the EU's position on international climate agreements is designed as ...