Abstract
The 15th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting held in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December 2009, which took place one week after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, has brought about rather disappointing outcomes from the perspective of the European Union (EU), which had previously displayed substantial leadership within the UN climate regime. Contrary to the EU’s objectives for the COP15 meeting, no legally binding agreement was reached to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 and the final Copenhagen Accord contained disappointingly few ambitious targets. This chapter tries to explain how this result came about and what the main challenges have been for the EU in this context. In the first place, we argue that the EU’s internal decision-making process was far from optimal. The unanimity rule, in combination with the heterogeneity of preferences of the 27 different EU Member States on many agenda items, negatively affected the EU’s ability to play a leadership role at the negotiations in Copenhagen. Secondly, the EU’s outreach strategy towards third parties seems to have missed its effect because it was not sufficiently adapted to the highly challenging external context of the negotiations, namely the positions that major third parties like the United States and China had adopted concerning a post-2012 climate regime. The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009 does not seem to have had much effect on the EU during the Copenhagen negotiations held one week later. Overall, it seems that the Lisbon provisions point into the right direction and could help to overcome some of the challenges that the EU currently faces in the conduct of its external climate policy. An analysis of the EU’s performance at future UNFCCC COP meetings, which are held once a year in December, should facilitate finding an answer to the question of how the Lisbon provisions will be implemented in this particular field.
Lisanne Groen—Ph.D. candidate, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Arne Niemann—Professor of International Relations, University of Mainz.
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Notes
- 1.
European Commission (2010), ‘Working with international partners’, Official website, Section Climate Action, Policies, International Partners, Climate Negotiations, available at http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations_en.htm. Accessed on 8 January 2011.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
Oberthür 2009a, 13. Morillas (this volume) discusses the Spanish Presidency as it dealt with the immediate consequences of the entry into force of Lisbon.
- 5.
Lacasta et al. 2002, 361.
- 6.
Sands 1992, 270.
- 7.
CAN Europe 2009.
- 8.
- 9.
Damro 2006, 185.
- 10.
Damro 2006, 187.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
Damro 2006, 187.
- 14.
- 15.
Van Schaik and Schunz (2012).
- 16.
For a detailed analysis on the EU and the legal personality it has acquired under the Treaty of Lisbon, see Sari (this volume).
- 17.
Other changes to the EU’s external climate policy that occurred as a result of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon but were not relevant for the EU’s performance at the Copenhagen negotiations, and changes that may occur in the future as a result of the Treaty, will be discussed in Sect. 15.5.
- 18.
Oberthür and Roche Kelly 2008, 38.
- 19.
Oberthür 2009a, 14.
- 20.
Oberthür and Roche Kelly 2008, 38.
- 21.
Gupta and Grubb 2000, xiv.
- 22.
European Commission (2010), ‘Emission Trading System (EU ETS)’, Official website, Section Environment, Climate Change, Emission Trading System, available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/index_en.htm, accessed on 7 July 2010.
- 23.
Van Schaik and Schunz (2012).
- 24.
Council of the European Union (2007), Presidency Conclusions of the Brussels European Council, Brussels, 9 March 2007, 7224/07.
- 25.
Interview with Council Secretariat representative, Brussels, 3 May 2010; Interview by telephone with Swedish EU Council Presidency delegate, 3 May 2010.
- 26.
Interview by telephone with UK delegate, 10 May 2010.
- 27.
UNFCCC Webcast (2009), United Nations Climate Change Conference, 7–18 December 2009, Copenhagen, available at http://cop15.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop15/templ/ovw.php?id_kongressmain=1&theme=unfccc, accessed on 7 August 2010; Interview with Council Secretariat representative, Brussels, 3 May 2010; Interview with UK delegate by telephone, 10 May 2010; Interview with participant-observer by telephone, 11 May 2010; Interview with Dutch delegate, The Hague, 12 May 2010; Interview with Japanese delegate by e-mail, 25 June 2010.
- 28.
Interview with CAN Europe representative, Brussels, 4 May 2010.
- 29.
Interview with Dutch delegate, The Hague, 12 May 2010; Interview with Swedish Council Presidency delegate by telephone, 3 May 2010.
- 30.
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) 2009.
- 31.
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) 2009.
- 32.
Van Schaik and Schunz (2012).
- 33.
- 34.
Luttikhuis (2009).
- 35.
Kanter (2009).
- 36.
Lacasta et al. 2002, 414.
- 37.
Interview with Council Secretariat representative, Brussels, 3 May 2010.
- 38.
Interview by telephone with UK delegate, 10 May 2010.
- 39.
Interview with Council Secretariat representative, Brussels, 3 May 2010.
- 40.
‘Hot air’ refers here to the question of whether the Eastern European countries, which have a surplus of CO2-emission rights left under the Kyoto Protocol because of the collapse of their industries after 1990, should be allowed to carry over these rights into the second period of the Kyoto Protocol or not.
- 41.
Interview with Council Secretariat representative, Brussels, 3 May 2010; Interview with UK delegate by telephone, 10 May 2010.
- 42.
Interview with Dutch delegate, The Hague, 12 May 2010; Bloemen (2009).
- 43.
Council of the European Union (2009), Environment Council of Ministers Conclusions, Brussels, 21 October 2009, 14790/09, 5.
- 44.
Council of the European Union (2007), Presidency Conclusions of the Brussels European Council, Brussels, 9 March 2007, 7224/07, 12.
- 45.
Interview by telephone with UK delegate, 10 May 2010.
- 46.
Interview with Dutch delegate, The Hague, 12 May 2010; van der Kris (2009).
- 47.
Council of the European Union (2009), Environment Council of Ministers Conclusions, Brussels, 21 October 2009, 14790/09, 13–14.
- 48.
Rosenthal (2009a).
- 49.
- 50.
Council of the European Union (2009), Environment Council of Ministers Conclusions, Brussels, 21 October 2009, 14790/09, 15.
- 51.
Murray (2009).
- 52.
Carrington (2009).
- 53.
Interview with Dutch delegate, The Hague, 12 May 2010.
- 54.
Council of the European Union (2009), Environment Council of Ministers Conclusions, Brussels, 21 October 2009, 14790/09, 19.
- 55.
van der Kris (2009).
- 56.
Interview by telephone with UK delegate, 10 May 2010; van der Kris (2009).
- 57.
Van Schaik and Schunz (2012).
- 58.
The US target was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020 from 2005 levels and the Chinese target was to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic output by 40–45% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels, which would not even decrease the total amount of emissions in 2020 compared to 2005, while the EU aimed for a cut of greenhouse gas emissions by 20–30% by 2020 from 1990 levels (New York Times, 26 November 2009).
- 59.
Afionis 2009, 45–46.
- 60.
Cf. Putnam 1988.
- 61.
Emphasis added.
- 62.
See Article 16 (4) TEU, Article 238 (2) TFEU and Declaration 7 attached to the Treaty. The transitional measures were set out in Council Decision of 13 December 2007 (2009/857/EC).
- 63.
Cf. Meunier 2000.
- 64.
For further analysis of the role of the High Representative, see Schmidt (this volume).
- 65.
Treaty on European Union, Article 15 (5).
- 66.
Lacasta et al. 2002, 369.
- 67.
On the creation and workings of the EEAS and problems encountered therein so far, see Blockmans and Laatsit (this volume).
- 68.
Van Schaik 2010, 272.
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Groen, L., Niemann, A. (2011). Challenges in EU External Climate Change Policy-Making in the Early Post-Lisbon Era: The UNFCCC Copenhagen Negotiations. In: Cardwell, P. (eds) EU External Relations Law and Policy in the Post-Lisbon Era. T.M.C. Asser Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-823-1_15
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