Introduction

EU climate and energy policy was once a matter of minor political importance on the EU agenda, with issues like the internal market, enlargement and monetary policies ranking far higher. After a decade of severe political conflicts and primarily symbolic policy outcomes in the 1990s, climate policy soared from ‘just another’ part of EU environmental policy to become a high-profile policy area in its own right. Especially from 2005 onwards, the pace of developments has been rapid indeed. By the end of that decade, a range of new and ambitious targets had been adopted, complemented by a broad palette of tangible and binding policies. Climate policy has emerged as a vital area of EU governance.