Exploring LULUCF Negotiations in the European Union

The Paris Agreement set a new milestone in the global climate governance, encouraging all countries to adhere to new ambitious commitments. The EU is looked upon as a future leader in implementing post-Paris climate commitments. However, not all EU member states seem to agree on how and when to cut their emissions (Ellison et al. 2014). The negotiations on integrating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework is a particularly interesting example for uncovering the variety of interests and discussions on approach to reducing emissions. The initial EU Commission’s proposal was presented as a technical issue to simplify accounting and calculating GHG emissions from agriculture and forestry. However, the proposal touched upon diverse interests of multiple actors and quickly became highly political. This paper aims to gain insights on how and with which means actors coalitions influence decision-making at the EU level. In particular, I explore who forms LULUCF policy network and how different factors (access, power, resources, coalitions within network) enable (or constrain) lobbying efforts of involved actors. This study draws from selected notions of multi-level governance and policy network literature, widely used for exploring the EU processes (e.g. Marks and Huge, 2001; Knill and Liefferink 2007). The applied methods include a combination of social network analysis, to identify and assess coalitions and power relations, and document analysis (meeting reports, position and policy papers) to put the obtained network data into context. The expected results will bring conceptual contributions in advancing understanding of the role policy networks play in shaping decision-making in multi-level governance and may help to shed a light on implications for governance principles (transparency, inclusion, accountability). The paper will also provide empirical insights into representation of organized interests in the EU LULUCF negotiations.