Mapping and Explaining EU’s Climate Governance in its Eastern Neighborhood

Climate change mitigation (CCM) and adaptation (CCA) are among the policy areas covered by the European Union (EU) in its cooperation with the neighboring countries. Although the cooperation is open to all of the neighboring countries, these is a significant cross-country and cross-policy variance in the intensity of cooperation. The article maps EU’s CCM and CCA cooperation with its eastern neighbors and explains the cross-country and cross-policy variance. Factors that explain the cross-country differences in the extent to which the EU engages in climate governance with the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries are the geographical proximity and the extent of countries’ CO2 emissions. Climate risks, although statistically significant, is a weaker predictor of EU’s engagement. Meanwhile, the policy focus of climate cooperation is best explained by the degree of association of the EaP countries with the EU.