Weathering growing polarization? The European Parliament and EU foreign climate policy ambitions

Figures & data

Table 1. Typology of arguments.

	‘High-ambition’ arguments	‘Low-ambition’ arguments
Economics	Increasing climate ambition to gain competitiveness through innovation	Lowering climate ambition to remain globally competitive
Emissions	The EU needs to take its responsibility to lead by example on climate action	The EU’s share of global GHG emissions is relatively low, it cannot make a difference
Geopolitics	The EU is and should remain a global climate leader, influencing others	Other powers shape global (climate) policy, the EU is not influential enough

Figure 1. Comparison of low ambition and high ambition positions per political group (2009–2019) (in %).

Figure 2. Overview of MEPs’ use of arguments on three shifts across low and high ambition positions (in %).