Abstract

Tackling climate change both internally and internationally has been an important issue on the EU agenda. To ensure coherent and effective adaptation measures are taken, the EU has adopted the climate-energy package in 2009 aiming to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 as well as to promote renewable energy. This legislation package that contains mitigation and adaptation measures has adopted six concrete laws; renewable energy, new emissions trading scheme (ETS), non-ETS emissions reduction, passenger cars’ emission standard, biofuels standards, and geologic storage of carbon dioxide. This paper analyzes and provides an overview of legal measures of the climate-energy package through examining six new acts thereof. Issues associated with implementation of these laws are also addressed respectively, and the likely influence of the climate-energy package on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) towards a post-2012 regime is explored. This article concludes that this package represents the EU’s concrete and determined action to tackle climate change as well as proves its capacity to achieve ambitious objectives thereof. In fact, this legislative package has significant contribution to global climate change adaptation as well as to future conclusion of a post-2012 international agreement on climate change.