Understanding the Paradoxes of Multilevel Governing: Climate Change Policy in the European Union

Andrew Jordan, Harro van Asselt, Frans Berkhout, Dave Huitema and Tim Rayner
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Andrew Jordan: Andrew Jordan is Professor of Environmental Politics in the Tyndall Centre, School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Harro van Asselt: Harro van Asselt is a Research Fellow with the Stockholm Environment Institute, as well as a Visiting Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and a PhD researcher with the Institute for Environmental Studies of the VU University Amsterdam.
Frans Berkhout: Frans Berkhout is Professor of Innovation and Sustainability, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the VU University and the Amsterdam Global Change Institute (AGCI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Dave Huitema: Dave Huitema is Associate Professor Environmental Policy at the Institute for Environmental Studies at the VU University Amsterdam.
Tim Rayner: Tim Rayner is the Senior Research Associate at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Global Environmental Politics, 2012, vol. 12, issue 2, pages 43-66

Abstract: The European Union (EU) has sought to lead the world in the adoption of ambitious climate change mitigation targets and policies. In an attempt to characterize and broadly explain the resulting pattern of EU climate governance, scholars have employed the term “multi-level reinforcement.” This term does help to account for the paradoxical situation whereby the EU seeks to lead by example but is itself a relatively leaderless system of governance. Drawing on a much fuller empirical account of the evolution of EU climate governance, this article finds that the term captures some but not all aspects of the EU's approach. It identifies four other paradoxical features of the EU's approach and assesses the extent to which they exhibit “multi-level reinforcement.” It concludes by looking forward and examining the extent to which all five features are expected to enable and/or constrain the EU's ability to maintain a leading position in climate governance. © 2012 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: climate change; environmental politics; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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