"Targets and Timetables" - Explaining the European Union’s Approach to International Climate Agreements

Abstract: For well over two decades, the European Union (EU) has been an important actor in climate change policy. It has developed a wide range of tools for its external and internal climate policy. This thesis examines the EU’s view on international climate agreements. The EU promotes a relatively stable approach to deal with the problem of climate change which is characterised by efforts to conclude legally binding and fair multilateral agreements, establishing ambitious long-term targets, allowing the EU to lead by example. This paper aims at identifying the underlying factors that drive this specific model. Through a qualitative case study of the EU’s climate approach it develops three categories of explanations. With the help of neo-institutionalist theories this thesis sheds light on the implications deriving from the internal dynamics and institutional settings of the EU. Thus, the central argument is that a mixture of factors that can be classified as institutions, interests and ideas determines the EU’s view on international climate agreements.