EU and the Kyoto Protocol: EU Cumate Policy in the Context of World-Wide Activities

EU AND THE KYOTO PROTOCOL: EU climate policy in the context of world-wide activities This thesis discusses the role of the European Union in the process of international negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change, which sets the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the ratifying countries. With these negotiations the world-wide climate policy was launched. The EU introduced itself as the world leader on the field of promoting high targets and a maximum range of domestic actions. In the international negotiation process, which was in run since 1992, EU had to urge other major emitters of greenhouse gases, above all the United States and Russia, on ratifying the Kyoto protocol. After the US had declined the Protocol, the EU put a great effort in bringing Russia to ratification of the Protocol so that it could enter into force. The EU was also the main initiator of further discussions on climate change strategy in the post-Kyoto period since 2012. As the process of the Protocol's ratification took almost six years, the EU has started its own climate policy with the aim of fulfilling its Kyoto targets. The examination of the EU climate policy domestic actions is the second and the main target of this thesis. In the conclusion I have discussed the..