Climate Change Law and Policy EU and US Approaches

Existing climate change governance regimes in the US and the EU contain complex mixtures of regulatory, market, voluntary, and research-based strategies. The EU has adopted an approach to climate change that is based on mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions; it is grounded in 'hard' law measures and accompanied by 'soft' law measures at the regional and Member State level. In contrast, until recently, the US federal government has carefully avoided mandatory emission reduction obligations and focused instead on employing a variety of 'soft' measures to encourage - rather than mandate - greenhouse gas emission reductions in an economically sound, market-driven manner. These macro level differences are critical yet they mask equally important transatlantic policy convergences. The US and the EU are pivotal players in the development of the international climate change regime. How these two entities structure climate change laws and policies profoundly influences the shape and success of climate change laws and policies at multiple levels of governance. This book suggests that the overall structures and processes of climate change law and policy-making in the US and the EU are intricately linked to international policy-making and, thus, the long-term success of global efforts to address climate change. Accordingly, the book analyses the content and process of climate change law and policy-making in the US and the EU to reveal policy convergences and divergences, and to examine how these convergences and divergences impact the ability of the global community to structure a sustainable, effective and equitable long-term climate strategy.

1 - The Role of the United States and the European Union in International Climate Change Politics
2 - Climate Change Laws and Policies in the United States
3 - Sub-Federal Climate Change Law & Policy-making in the United States
4 - Alternative Forms of Climate Change Law & Policy-making in the United States
5 - Climate Change Laws and Policies in the European Union
6 - Member State Climate Change Laws & Policies in the European Union
7 - United States and European Union Climate Change Laws and Policies Compared
8 - Socio-Legal Factors Influencing Climate Change Law and Policy-making in the United States and European Union
9 - Conclusions & the Way Forward

Cinnamon Piñon Carlarne is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law & School of the Environment. She is an environmental lawyer interested in evolving systems of domestic and international environmental law and governance. Dr Carlarne earned her JD at the University of California, Berkeley before reading for an MSc in Environmental Change and Management and the BCL in law as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford. She worked in private practice in Washington DC before returning to academia. She was the Harold Woods Junior Research Fellow in Environmental Law at Wadham College, University of Oxford before joining the University of South Carolina. Her current work focuses on comparative climate change law and policy-making, and global environmental governance.