Is Climate Change Changing the EU? The Second Image Reversed in Climate Politics

The participation of the European Union (EU) in international climate negotiations has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention. Climate change has become an important expression of the EU’s ‘actorness’ in world politics (Bretherton and Vogler 2006); accordingly European foreign climate policy has been thoroughly examined (Harris 2007; Andresen and Agrawala 2002; Jaeger et al 1997; Schreurs 2004). However, the relationship between the EU and the international climate regime 2 (ICR) is not a one-way street—while the Union has been actively shaping the ICR, the latter has also had an effect on the EU. As has been elucidated by institutionalists studying ‘second image reversed’ processes (Gourevitch 1978), international negotiations and agreements can have a domestic influence (Kelley 2004).