Can EU Leadership on Climate Change Unite the Fragmented Union?

Christian Kvorning Lassen's newest policy paper on combatting the climate change will serve as the background material for the very first debate from our pilot project Prague Climate Talks: 'Paris Agreement and changing geopolitics,' taking place on June 21st, 2017, at the European house.

Christian Kvorning Lassen's newest policy paper on combatting the climate change will serve as the background material for the very first debate from our pilot project Prague Climate Talks: 'Paris Agreement and changing geopolitics,' taking place on June 21st, 2017, at the European house.

Combatting climate change remains one of, if not the, greatest contemporary global challenge, both now and for future generations. With the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, nations across the globe sans Syria and Nicaragua stood, for the first time, truly united in a pledge to halt or even reverse the rapidly accelerating climate change.

Under President Obama’s leadership, the US was – as expected – the de facto leader in this endeavor, having been one of the principal voices bringing many of the developing countries into the fold. For the first time in more than a decade, it seemed like the tools necessary to take tangible, united action, had finally materialized. More ephemeral, yet no less important, was the fact that it gave hope for the first time since the debacle in Copenhagen. 

 Download the publication through the PDF on the right of this article.

Christian Kvorning Lassen
Deputy Director & Head of Research

Expertise: Migration/European migration crisis, EU foreign policy, Scandinavian politics, populism, EU enlargement policy