Missed opportunities: the impact of internal compartmentalisation on EU diplomacy across the international regime complex on climate change

ABSTRACT

International climate governance no longer takes place only in the UNFCCC but is spread across numerous fora that collectively form the international regime complex on climate change. For climate leaders like the EU, the regime complex creates opportunities for strategic activity in its diplomacy across the different fora. This article examines how internal compartmentalisation affected the EU’s diplomacy across the international regime complex on climate change in the negotiation of four climate agreements: the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC), CORSIA (ICAO), the Kigali Amendment (Montreal Protocol), and the Initial Strategy (IMO). It finds that internal compartmentalisation indeed hinders the EU’s pursuit of a comprehensive climate diplomacy, making the regime complex a missed opportunity for the EU. Various combinations of a lack of communication channels, different priorities and policy framings, and a lack of resources and expertise contributed to situations where the EU was limited in using the regime complex.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate diplomacy
• European union
• compartmentalisation
• regime complex

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Diana Panke, Katja Biedenkopf, participants from the 2022 ECPR Joint Sessions Workshop ‘Complex Global Governance: Actors, Institutions, and Strategies’ and the 2022 EUSA and ECPR SGEU conferences, as well as four anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this article, we refer to the EU as its institutions or member states acting either individually or collectively on the basis of a common position.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) [grant no T.0064.19].

Notes on contributors

Tom Delreux

Tom Delreux is a professor of political science and EU politics at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and a visiting professor at the College of Europe. His research interests include the EU’s external relations, EU environmental policy, EU institutions, and international environmental politics.

Joseph Earsom

Joseph Earsom is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). His research interests include EU climate policy, climate diplomacy, international negotiations, and regime complexity.