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EU Legislation on Climate Change

The need for EU policy on climate change was first recognised by the European Parliament in 1986 and since that time there has been an ever increasing flow of EU legislative proposals, communications and recommendations for action related to the topic.

Most recently the European Commission published its long awaited package of proposals on climate action and renewable energy on 23 January 2008, which aims to deliver commitments made by European leaders in March 2007 to reduce greenhouse gases and boost renewable energy use. The package includes legislative proposals to revise the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS); tighter national reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions not covered by the ETS; differentiated national targets for the uptake of renewable energy; new rules on carbon capture and storage and amended guidelines on state aid for environmental measures.

Download: IEEP's policy briefing on the European Commission's climate and energy package (PDF 181 KB).

The EU has an array of policy documents on climate change, below are presented some of the key measures related to climate change target setting and strategy; cap and trade; biofuels and carbon capture and storage. Further details of EU policy in other fields is available from IEEP's Manual of European Environmental Policy.

Select EU Legislation Documents