Pushing in the same direction: The EU’s diplomacy across the international regime complex on climate change for COP26
(2023) International Studies Association Annual Conference — Location: Montréal (15.March.2023)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
Earsom, Joseph 
- Abstract
- The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in a unique geopolitical context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of the US Biden Administration. While international governance fora beyond the UNFCCC have long been recognised as feeding into the COP negotiations, they appeared to play even more of a role in the leadup to COP26. As an international climate leader bolstered by its recent European Green Deal, the EU appeared to adapt its climate diplomacy accordingly. Yet, its internal compartmentalisation calls into question the extent the EU’s approach to these new developments in the regime complex on climate change is indeed a reflection of a well-coordinated strategy. This paper therefore answers the research question What factors explain the EU’s use of the international regime complex on climate change to influence negotiations at COP26? To do so, it examines the EU’s approach to three diplomatic evolutions within the international regime complex in the leadup to COP26: (1) the tandem UK-Italy G7 and G20 presidencies, (2) the Global Methane Pledge, and (3) the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). It finds that the EU’s diplomacy in these cases was in fact largely driven by well-placed actors operating largely at the political level with surprisingly little input from the technical level driving the EU’s negotiations in the UNFCCC. Therefore, the paper nuances our understanding of the EU as an integrated, coherent actor in its multilateral climate diplomacy in an ever-changing international context.
- Affiliations
Citations
Earsom, J. (2023). Pushing in the same direction: The EU’s diplomacy across the international regime complex on climate change for COP26. International Studies Association Annual Conference, Montréal. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/99898