Increased ambition on paper, but diverse manifestations? Unpacking shades of EU climate diplomacy

Abstract

The climate crisis represents a crucial policy challenge in international politics. The European Union (EU) has aimed to address this challenge through both ambitious internal policies, like the European Green Deal, and active outreach in the international arena. This drive to be a credible foreign climate policy actor has been matched with the explicit formulation of a ‘climate diplomacy’ within the EU’s (foreign policy) institutions. Since 2011, the Foreign Affairs Council has issued regular conclusions and corresponding action plans on climate diplomacy, thereby carving out the framework for an emerging sectoral diplomacy in the area of climate action. In this context, both in practice and academic literature, climate diplomacy has become a ‘catch all’ term for any type of EU external activity related to climate change. These include activities during UNFCCC climate negotiations, bilateral or multilateral outreach, and the use of other instruments from the EU’s external action toolbox (development aid, trade agreements, etc.). Partly triggered by the complex and far-reaching nature of the climate crisis, internal and external challenges to the EU’s climate diplomatic outreach have emerged, including varying EU competences across sectors, inconsistencies across instruments and sectoral goals, parallel activities of Member States, etc. Taken together, despite an increase of (high-level) diplomatic ambitions in the area of climate action on paper, the question of how EU climate diplomacy has actually taken shape remains. This panel brings together contributions that study manifestations of EU climate diplomacy in the international arena, which have typically been studied in relative isolation from each other. We aim to build an overall understanding of the various shades of climate diplomacy as well as internal and external challenges to it. The case study of climate diplomacy as an emerging area of EU sectoral diplomacy provides relevant insights into the EU’s role as an international actor.

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