EU climate change policy governance: how to achieve stability and predictability?

Key features of the proposed governance system include:

• Stability and resilience by design – not by creating a system impervious to change, but by ensuring that change is not ad-hoc and capricious;
• An ability to react predictably to unpredicted developments, be they economic, technological, scientific or political;
• A close, continuous review of the many interactions that are inevitable in a policy field that affects the vast majority of the economy ;
• An ability to manage these interactions at, and between, different level: from the global to the Member State level, and even to the level of individual policy instruments;
• A system of regular reviews and revisions of key, pre-determined policies and policy parameters, along with reviews triggered by certain events or developments, such as economic shocks.

CERRE Director General, Professor Bruno Liebhaberg, says:

“Governance of climate change policies represent an integral part of the good governance that citizens expect from public authorities at all levels, including the EU level. When those legitimate expectations are not met, citizens lose trust in their governments and become easy preys to fall into the clutches of populists, nationalists and extremists. This CERRE report provides clear recommendations that can deliver good governance and contribute to well-functioning, stable and successful climate change policy.”