EU Climate Governance -- after Brexit, What Next?

Regardless of whether or not the Kyoto Protocol becomes mandate, the EU has decided to set its own a long-term greenhouse gas emission target and thus to continue its leadership role in international climate policy. Under the Kyoto Protocol the EU agreed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by eight percent. The EU Burden-Sharing Agreement has redistributed the reduction target among its member states. The recent developments in climate change policy reveal once more the importance of the burden sharing issue in fleshing out an internationally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But can this be maintained? In the wake of the Brexit earthquake, what happens next will largely depend on how the government renegotiates the country’s relationship with the EU. Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief, said that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union was not a vote against climate change. But Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May has scrapped the UK's climate ministry and appointed a climate skeptic as environment minister. In a post-Brexit world, Europe's climate protection policy could be in trouble.

A Brexit will not only create a leadership vacuum on emissions reductions - it will also create a burden-sharing vacuum. The EU's 40 percent target, pledged at the UN climate summit in Paris last year, applies to the entire bloc rather than to individual countries.

This research will combine two academic disciplines, international relations and legal studies, to explore the development of policy and issues after Brexit.