The implementation of the European Union’s (EU) Green Deal to reduce emissions by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 will have an impact on the EU’s trade policy and on its trade relations with its non-EU partners. With the ongoing decarbonisation process of European economic...

The outgoing European Commission has published its Communication on a 2040 climate target as its last major climate policy initiative before the 2024 European elections. By recommending a net emissions reduction target of 90 per cent compared to 1990 levels, it lays the strategic foundations for...

Climate policy in the European Union (EU) and Germany changed significantly with the adoption of net-zero emissions targets. A key new development is the growing importance of carbon management. The umbrella term includes not only the capture and storage of CO2 (carbon capture and storage, CCS),...

Climate experts are apprehensive about the approaching Presidency of the United Arab Emirates at this year's Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). So far, the oil producer has not set a shining example with its climate protection efforts; and...

If the EU wants to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, enacting conventional climate change mitigation measures to avoid emissions of greenhouse gases will not be enough. To compensate for unavoidable residual emissions, unconventional measures to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will also be...

The European Union (EU) has been advocating climate policy ambitions from the very beginning of the international climate regime. Climate action to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement (2015) involves nearly all fields of national and international policy-making. In this research...

The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) will see a new round of battle regarding the call to phase out fossil fuels. Intense debates have taken place in Germany and the European Union (EU) to determine positions in the run-up to the conference. The main point of...

The outcome of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference shows that international co­operation remains possible despite today’s challenging geopolitical situation. Instead of the feared blockade, an agreement was reached for the first time - some three decades after the start of the COP process -...

Since net zero targets have become a keystone of climate policy, more thought is being given to actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while continuing to drastically reduce emissions. The ocean plays a major role in regulating the global climate by absorbing a large proportion of...

Plurilateral initiatives are again gaining importance in climate diplomacy as a complement to multilateral efforts – not least in view of the lack of progress in implementing the Paris Agreement and more difficult conditions in the UN process. New alliances are expected to facilitate agreement...