The EU's contribution to fighting climate change: between unilateralism and multilateralism
The dissertation focuses on EU and international environmental law since the 1990s, with particular attention to the role played by the EU in curbing emissions through market-based measures like the EU ETS and in mediating among reluctant actors on an international level. The key controversial point of the dissertation is the inclusion of international civil aviation in the EU ETS, which raised several concerns on its conformity with international treaty and customary law. In order to facilitate negotiations within ICAO, the EU decided to reduce the scope of its directive to only intra-EEA flights. An agreement on an offset carbon scheme, called CORSIA, was reached in 2016. Finally, a brief overview of the evolution from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement is provided in order to understand the evolution of international climate change policy and the EU's role during negotiations, contributing to an innovative universal treaty tackling climate change.