ABSTRACT
It is often stated that prior to 1973 there was no such thing as an EC environmental policy. A legal basis for EC action on the environment was only provided when the Single European Act (SEA) was passed in 1987. Drawing upon the conclusions of the 1985 Villach Conference, the European Parliament recognized climate change as a multifaceted problem, with impacts that could take less direct and more multifarious routes. The internal controversy over the tax proposal dominated the climate policy debate within the EC and effectively prevented it from adopting a more ambitious and proactive stance during the Rio Summit. So intense were the intra-EC disputes in the run-up to Rio that Carlo Ripa di Meana, then Environment Commissioner, threatened to boycott it if the Council failed to approve the tax proposal and thus adopt a solid implementation strategy for meeting the EC stabilization target.
