Features of the European Union’s Foreign Policy Leadership on Preventing Climate Change

Abstract

The European Union, which has already established itself as a climate leader in its own region, having launched the large-scale European Green Deal project in 2019 and involving not only the bloc's member states, but also partner states, in particular, the Eastern Partnership countries, in its implementation, is now pursuing the more ambitious goal of achieving global climate leadership. As of today, such an intention of the EU has been contained in a considerable number of normative legal acts, including the Communication on the European Green Deal, the European Climate Law, the New EU Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation, the 8th Environmental Action Programme to 2030, etc. Among the factors that have a significant negative impact on the establishment of sustainable EU foreign policy leadership on combating climate change, we can include, among others, the Russian-Ukrainian war, the EU energy crisis, the unwillingness of some foreign policy actors to confront the climate crisis, and the demonstration of “negative climate leadership”, especially by the largest polluting countries, including, in particular, the USA, China, Bharat, Russia, etc. For a better understanding of the phenomenon of leadership in international relations, as well as the role of the EU in the formation of global environmental policy in the field of climate change prevention, the following tasks are performed in the article: in the first part of the publication, the phenomenon and the main ways of achieving foreign policy leadership are comprehensively analyzed; in the second part of the article, the focus of attention is aimed at defining 1) the essence of EU climate leadership; 2) the main approaches used by the EU to form and stimulate its foreign policy leadership on combating climate change at the regional and global levels; 3) the main stages that preceded the establishment of the EU as a climate leader.