ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The main theme is that the European Union has been the place in the world where, over the last quarter of a century, active learning has characterised policymaking in the field of the environment and climate change. This has led to considerable success in cleaning up pollution, decoupling emissions from economic growth and fostering global technological leadership. A first important lesson is that European climate policy has been built up step by step. Learning-by-doing has turned out to be a key feature. Tackling the new and complex problem of climate change means that many consumers and producers need to change their habits and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A second important lesson is that there is no 'silver bullet', no one single policy instrument, suited to bring down greenhouse gas emissions across so many sectors of economic activities.
