ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of European Community (EC) policy for climate change including its involvement with the Framework Convention on Climate Change. It discusses the different institutions of the EC, and of the making of EC policy, and examines EC climate policy in the context of pre-existing EC policy for the environment and for energy. The Treaty of Maastricht, which came into effect in November 1993, is the most of a number of treaties entered into by the Member States who have created an organization which possesses many of the attributes of sovereignty while enabling the Member States to retain essential aspects of their own sovereignty. A major difficulty in discussing EC policy for climate change, or indeed for any other subject, is the ambiguous way in which the term EC policy is often used.
