Understanding the changing performance of the European Union in International Environmental and Climate Governance. (FWOAL641)

The project aims to explain variation of European Union (EU) performance in international environmental governance over time and across issue areas. It first assesses and compares the changing performance of the EU, since the early 1990s, in two core issue areas of international environmental governance: climate change and the protection of biological diversity. In both cases, proclaimed "EU leadership" has seen varying levels of success over time and across the issue areas. Core elements of performance (a concept to be further unfolded during the first project phase) in particular include (1) the EU's impact on international decision-making and (2) its "relevance" for the EU member states, including its ability to speak with one voice. In order to explain variation in the EU's performance, the main focus of the project will then be on exploring a set of explanatory factors derived from different theoretical schools, including power, interests, ideas/identity/knowledge/values, and institutional settings. By addressing the question why the EU's performance in international environmental governance has varied across time and issue areas, the project will also make a significant contribution to current academic debates about the major factors that shape the EU's "actorness", role and influence in international institutions, multilateralism, and international affairs at large.

Keywords:Europe

Disciplines:Philosophy, ethics and religious studies