ABSTRACT
Introduction In this chapter, we analyse the role of the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Council of heads of state and government in the evolution of EU leadership in international climate policy. We focus on the development of domestic EU climate policy within the context of international climate negotiations, because credible international leadership requires appropriate domestic measures (‘leadership by example’) (Gupta and Grubb 2000; Bretherton and Vogler 2006). We argue that the Council and the European Council have remained crucial in developing the leadership record of the EU on climate change, but that this record, having moved from a rhetorical leadership style in the 1990s towards the beginnings of a transformational leadership style in the 2000s, has stagnated on the way to such transformational leadership. Divergences among member states have impeded further progress, while the evolving external politics of climate change have constituted a major challenge. Nevertheless, climate change is firmly established in the realm of ‘high politics’, and the European Council has moved into an increasingly central position in climate policy. The European Council engages more in climate policymaking by providing clear directions for the course and ambition of internal policy measures. Since the peak of climate leadership in the EU, a certain degree of ‘new intergovernmentalism’ (Bickerton et al. 2015) has become evident in the development of internal and external climate policy – with the Council, and especially the European Council being the key decision-makers. In this chapter, we first discuss the role of the Council and European Council in internal and external EU climate policy in general. We then trace their leadership role, highlighting the move towards a transformational leadership style over the course of the 2000s, leading to stagnation in advances in leadership since the late 2000s. Next, we discuss the Council’s and European Council’s narrative on the green economy, and their role in the multi-level governance of climate change.
