The Prospect of Climate Acts as a Means for Environmental Policy Integration in Europe: A Comparative Study

Environmental policy integration (EPI) is a guiding principle for the EU and its member states. Since the late 1990s, EPI has become an important instrument for sustainable development since environmental problems often are both scientifically complex and politically contested, spanning numerous sectors and multiple administrative levels. In particular, climate change mitigation is a clear example of a complex and challenging policy task that require cross-sectoral and cross-level integration in order to be comprehensively addressed, simultaneously being an issue at the top of the political agenda in Europe. The European toolbox contains both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ climate governance instruments as means of achieving EPI. During the last decade several European countries, there among the UK, Denmark, Finland and some German states, have introduced Climate Change Acts as a means for structuring, regulating and demonstrating the commitment of governments to the climate work. In several more, there among Sweden and Norway, the possibility of introducing climate acts is currently being explored, with the ambition to better integrate climate considerations across sectors by regulating governmental responsibility and processes relating to climate policy. Although several studies outline and analyse the processes of introducing climate legislation, the lack of evaluation of their outcomes is tangible. In this paper, the main ambition is therefore to explore whether, to what extent, and in which aspects, climate acts have been conducive to climate policy integration. Based on a framework focusing policy integration in both rhetoric and political practice, this study analyses developments across four European countries. The results of the study will contribute to a better theoretical and empirical understanding of hard law – and specifically climate acts – as an instrument for policy integration, as well as the significance of both institutional context and regulative design to achieve climate policy goals.