Sebastian Oberthür
Biographic Data
| ID | 2485604 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sebastian Oberthür |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sebastian |
| FAMILY NAME | Oberthür |
| SIGNATURE | OBERTHÜR S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8626-5082 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 573 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Public participation in EU climate governance: The Underexploited Potential of National Energy and Climate Plans
EU climate policy in turbulent times: Understanding the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
Early studies of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on EU climate policy have found that the crises reinforced EU climate policy. We go beyond these analyses by investigating key drivers underlying the EU’s climate policy responses and their dynamics. This enables us to, first, better understand how the responses emerged and, second, explore the circumstances under which EU climate policy development m…
Assessing the EU’s Evolving Position in Energy Geopolitics under Decarbonisation
As a major importer of fossil fuels, the EU will likely see its position in the geopolitics of energy change following its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. This article analyses the implications of the energy transition for the EU’s role in energy geopolitics, looking at declining and emerging energy dependences by investigating the EU’s exposure to the material foundations of interdependence (sensitivity) and its ability to manage them (…
Three decades of EU climate policy: Racing toward climate neutrality
The European Union (EU) began developing climate policy in the 1990s. Since then, it has built up a broad portfolio of mitigation policy measures and governance tools, including legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and policy measures addressing emissions trading, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and more. In 2019, the European Commission—the EU's executive arm—published the European Green Deal (EGD), an overarchi…
Third time lucky? Reconciling EU climate and external energy policy during energy security crises
The Russian aggression against Ukraine brought energy security to the top of the European policy agenda. Existing literature suggests that the prioritization of energy security would come at the expense of climate policy. We argue that the EU’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine may constitute a departure from this pattern. Our assessment shows a higher level of coherence of objectives and instruments between energy security and climate …
From emissions trading to the European Green Deal: The evolution of the climate policy mix and climate policy integration in the EU
This article analyses the development of the mix of EU climate policy instruments and the level of climate policy integration (CPI) in the twenty-first century. Complementing established criteria of ambition and stringency, analysis of the instrument mix and CPI enables a fuller assessment of the transformational potential of EU climate governance. We argue that both have significantly advanced towards matching the 'super-wicked' nature of the cl…
Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: Lessons learned and future research
Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled institutional interplay as a result of functional and normative overlap across multiple regimes. This article synthesizes primary contributions made in research on institutional interplay over the past twenty years, with particular focus on publications with International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economic…
Implementing the European Green Deal during the Evolving Energy Crisis
Europe’s Transition to Sustainability: Actors, Approaches and Policies
In 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal (EGD, see EC [2019]) as a strategic framework for policy development to achieve the aims of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see Dupont et al. 2020). The EGD offers an opportunity to reflect on the complexity of achieving long-term sustainability through enhanced public action in a number of relevant EU policy areas. Amidst a …
Emission reduction strategies in the EU steel industry: Implications for business model innovation
The European steel industry must achieve deep greenhouse gas emission reductions to become climate neutral by 2050. New business models are often proposed as one of the key solutions but are mostly addressed in general terms, without elaborating on or systematically analyzing how these new business models are actually linked to specific mitigation measures or strategies. In this paper, we assess when and to what extent different emission reductio…
A sectoral perspective on international climate governance: Key findings and research priorities
This concluding article derives six major findings from the contributions to this special issue. First, the barriers and challenges to decarbonisation vary significantly across sectoral systems. Second, and similarly, the need and potential for the five functions of international governance institutions to contribute to effective climate protection also vary widely. Third, while the pattern is uneven, there is a general undersupply of internation…
A sectoral perspective on global climate governance: Analytical foundation
This article develops a sectoral approach to the analysis of global climate governance. This approach advances the assessment of global climate governance by focusing on complexes of intergovernmental and transnational institutions co-governing key socio-technical sectoral systems. The actual and potential contribution of these sectoral institutional complexes to advancing decarbonization can be assessed according to five key governance functions…
EU Climate and Energy Policy: How Myopic Is It
This article investigates the shortsightedness or myopia of recent climate and energy policy (CEP) in the EU. To this end, it develops and applies a measurement tool of short-termism composed of four key criteria: (1) the reflection of science-based long-term thinking in the policy process and its output; (2) the degree to which mid-term greenhouse gas emission targets and accompanying policies align with science-based long-term objectives; (3) t…
The European Union’s international climate leadership: Towards a Grand Climate Strategy
Advancing literature on EU international climate strategy, this article offers a fresh and comprehensive assessment of the EU's international leadership on climate change. Conceptually, it provides a framework for systematic analysis of different facets of exemplary and diplomatic leadership taking into account key framework conditions. Empirically, we trace the achievements and challenges of the EU's climate leadership since the early 1990s, wit…
EU climate and energy governance in times of crisis: Towards a New Agenda
The EU has long pursued relatively ambitious climate and energy policies, often against the backdrop of what has been termed the EU ‘polycrisis’. This paper introduces a special issue which seeks to develop a better understanding of why, how and with which consequences the polycrisis and EU climate and energy governance have influenced each other. It draws on a novel framework of five broad crisis trends underlying the polycrisis. Most of the con…
Global governance for the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries: Great potential underexploited
This article investigates the contribution of global governance to advancing the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries (EIIs – steel, chemicals, cement, aluminium, etc.). It explores to what extent relevant intergovernmental and transnational institutions have exploited the potentials of global governance to address related barriers and challenges, in particular competitiveness concerns, the need to incentivise investments in breakthroug…
The Covid-19 crisis: A critical juncture for EU climate policy development
The EU has demonstrated increasing commitment to combating climate change. In December 2019, the European Commission published the European Green Deal (EGD) – an evolving, overarching strategy that aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Just as the plans were underway to implement the EGD, the Covid-19 crisis hit. We ask whether it is likely that the Covid-19 crisis represents a critical juncture for EU climate policy, and why? Experience fr…
Hard or Soft Governance? The EU’s Climate and Energy Policy Framework for 2030
This article investigates the stringency of EU climate and energy governance along the soft-hard continuum as a key determinant of its ability to achieve its ambitions. It introduces four criteria for a systematic and differentiated assessment of the bindingness/stringency of legislative instruments and governance frameworks, namely: (1) formal legal status, (2) the nature of the obligations (substantive—procedural), (3) their precision and presc…
Explaining goal achievement in international negotiations: The EU and the Paris Agreement on climate change
The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015 reflects EU policy objectives to large extent. To find an explanation, we develop a general framework that incorporates both structural and actor-/process-related factors, paying particular attention to negotiation strategy and diplomacy. On this basis, we argue that the high level of EU goal achievement in Paris resulted from the interplay of (1) evolving international structures, (2…
The European Union as an Inadvertent Great Power: EU Actorness and the Ukraine Crisis
We examine how the EU can act as a great power in its own right even in the absence of military capability and how its institutional structure conditions this ability. We first theorize EU great power politics. Based on theories of corporate action, the EU constitutes a strong market power in its own right and a weak security power. While it is institutionally ill‐equipped to purposefully mobilize its market power to pursue high‐politics goals, i…
Where to go from Paris? The European Union in climate geopolitics
The EU’s strategic re-orientation to coalition and bridge building after the failed Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 paved the way for its success in securing the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015. This orientation will largely remain relevant in climate geopolitics characterized by multipolarity and a diversification of interests away from a North–South divide, both headed towards growing support for decarbonization. Various fo…
The European Union and the Paris Agreement: Leader, mediator, or bystander
After its defeat at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, the EU can be considered to have scored a relative success with the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015. With the mitigation ambition of the agreement exceeding expectations, the EU realized its policy objectives to a greater extent than it may have anticipated itself. This success was made possible by a moderation of the EU ’s policy objectives pursued proactively through an EU brid…
The Effectiveness Dimension of the EU's Performance in International Institutions: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment Framework
In this article, we develop a comprehensive framework for assessing the effectiveness dimension of the EU's performance in international institutions, consisting of three elements: (1) the quality of the EU's policy objectives; (2) EU engagement in the negotiations, including its fit with the international constellation of power and interests; and (3) goal achievement. We apply this assessment framework to two cases with two phases each: (1) the …
On the EU's performance and leadership in global environmental governance: The case of the Nagoya Protocol
Analysing the European Union's (EU) role in the negotiations of the 2010 Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing regarding genetic resources, this article argues for the integration of (1) the EU's policy objectives and (2) their achievement in the analysis of the EU's performance and leadership in international (environmental) negotiations. We first develop a conceptual and explanatory framework that highlights the inter-relationship betwe…
Umweltschutz Durch Internationale Regime: Interessen, Verhandlungsprozesse, Wirkungen
The European Union’s international climate leadership: Towards a Grand Climate Strategy
Advancing literature on EU international climate strategy, this article offers a fresh and comprehensive assessment of the EU's international leadership on climate change. Conceptually, it provides a framework for systematic analysis of different facets of exemplary and diplomatic leadership taking into account key framework conditions. Empirically, we trace the achievements and challenges of the EU's climate leadership since the early 1990s, wit…
The Covid-19 crisis: A critical juncture for EU climate policy development
The EU has demonstrated increasing commitment to combating climate change. In December 2019, the European Commission published the European Green Deal (EGD) – an evolving, overarching strategy that aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Just as the plans were underway to implement the EGD, the Covid-19 crisis hit. We ask whether it is likely that the Covid-19 crisis represents a critical juncture for EU climate policy, and why? Experience fr…
Explaining goal achievement in international negotiations: The EU and the Paris Agreement on climate change
The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015 reflects EU policy objectives to large extent. To find an explanation, we develop a general framework that incorporates both structural and actor-/process-related factors, paying particular attention to negotiation strategy and diplomacy. On this basis, we argue that the high level of EU goal achievement in Paris resulted from the interplay of (1) evolving international structures, (2…
Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Performance in International Institutions – Conceptual Framework and Core Findings
This article introduces the analytical framework of the collection on the performance of the EU in international institutions and summarizes its main findings. We focus on the role of the EU in the decision-making within international organizations and regimes as a major locus of global governance. We suggest unpacking the concept of EU performance into four core elements: effectiveness (goal achievement);relevance (of the EU for its priority sta…
From emissions trading to the European Green Deal: The evolution of the climate policy mix and climate policy integration in the EU
This article analyses the development of the mix of EU climate policy instruments and the level of climate policy integration (CPI) in the twenty-first century. Complementing established criteria of ambition and stringency, analysis of the instrument mix and CPI enables a fuller assessment of the transformational potential of EU climate governance. We argue that both have significantly advanced towards matching the 'super-wicked' nature of the cl…
Transforming governance and institutions for global sustainability: Key insights from the Earth System Governance Project
European Union Actorness in International Institutions: Why the EU is Recognized as an Actor in Some International Institutions, but Not in Others
This article examines why the European Union (EU) is recognized as a relevant actor in some international institutions, but not in others. Drawing on theories of international institutions and corporate action, it develops a theoretical approach toward EU actorness that demonstrates under which conditions third parties gain an interest in recognizing this actor as a relevant party to international institutions and how the EU can become an actor i…
The European Union as an Inadvertent Great Power: EU Actorness and the Ukraine Crisis
We examine how the EU can act as a great power in its own right even in the absence of military capability and how its institutional structure conditions this ability. We first theorize EU great power politics. Based on theories of corporate action, the EU constitutes a strong market power in its own right and a weak security power. While it is institutionally ill‐equipped to purposefully mobilize its market power to pursue high‐politics goals, i…
EU climate and energy governance in times of crisis: Towards a New Agenda
The EU has long pursued relatively ambitious climate and energy policies, often against the backdrop of what has been termed the EU ‘polycrisis’. This paper introduces a special issue which seeks to develop a better understanding of why, how and with which consequences the polycrisis and EU climate and energy governance have influenced each other. It draws on a novel framework of five broad crisis trends underlying the polycrisis. Most of the con…
The Causal Mechanisms of Interaction between International Institutions
This article develops a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of the interaction between international institutions as a first step towards building a theory of international interaction. It examines how international institutions may exert causal influence on each other's development and effectiveness and suggests that four general causal mechanisms can elucidate the distinct routes through which influence travels from one institution…
Implementing the European Green Deal during the Evolving Energy Crisis
The Effectiveness Dimension of the EU's Performance in International Institutions: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment Framework
In this article, we develop a comprehensive framework for assessing the effectiveness dimension of the EU's performance in international institutions, consisting of three elements: (1) the quality of the EU's policy objectives; (2) EU engagement in the negotiations, including its fit with the international constellation of power and interests; and (3) goal achievement. We apply this assessment framework to two cases with two phases each: (1) the …
On the EU's performance and leadership in global environmental governance: The case of the Nagoya Protocol
Analysing the European Union's (EU) role in the negotiations of the 2010 Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing regarding genetic resources, this article argues for the integration of (1) the EU's policy objectives and (2) their achievement in the analysis of the EU's performance and leadership in international (environmental) negotiations. We first develop a conceptual and explanatory framework that highlights the inter-relationship betwe…
The European Union’s Performance in the International Climate Change Regime
The performance of the European Union (EU) in international climate policy improved significantly over much of the 1990s and 2000s with respect to goal achievement (effectiveness) and relevance. However, the failure of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 represented a major backlash for the EU. This article argues that internal factors – including in particular the development of internal climate policy – have mostly enhanced the EU’s performance condi…
Institutional Interaction in Global Environmental Governance: The Case of the Cartagena Protocol and the World Trade Organization
The competitive quest of the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO for authority to regulate international trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) exemplifies a typical interaction between international institutions with diverging objectives. This article first develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of institutional interaction that emphasizes disaggregation of complex interaction situations into separate cases of clearly directed inter…
Interplay management: Enhancing environmental policy integration among international institutions
Hard or Soft Governance? The EU’s Climate and Energy Policy Framework for 2030
This article investigates the stringency of EU climate and energy governance along the soft-hard continuum as a key determinant of its ability to achieve its ambitions. It introduces four criteria for a systematic and differentiated assessment of the bindingness/stringency of legislative instruments and governance frameworks, namely: (1) formal legal status, (2) the nature of the obligations (substantive—procedural), (3) their precision and presc…
Three decades of EU climate policy: Racing toward climate neutrality
The European Union (EU) began developing climate policy in the 1990s. Since then, it has built up a broad portfolio of mitigation policy measures and governance tools, including legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and policy measures addressing emissions trading, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and more. In 2019, the European Commission—the EU's executive arm—published the European Green Deal (EGD), an overarchi…
Third time lucky? Reconciling EU climate and external energy policy during energy security crises
The Russian aggression against Ukraine brought energy security to the top of the European policy agenda. Existing literature suggests that the prioritization of energy security would come at the expense of climate policy. We argue that the EU’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine may constitute a departure from this pattern. Our assessment shows a higher level of coherence of objectives and instruments between energy security and climate …
Clustering of Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Potentials and Limitations
The EU as an International Actor: The Protection of the Ozone Layer
Striving for a common foreign environmental policy, the European Union (EU) has developed from a laggard in the mid‐1980s to a partial leader in the 1990s in international co‐operation on protection of the ozone layer. Factors specific to the EU which impact on its performance in this area point to more general constraints on EU foreign environmental policy‐making. The EU has had difficulties in leading on issues not firmly established on its pol…
Linkages between the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols – Enhancing Synergies between Protecting the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate
The European Union and the Paris Agreement: Leader, mediator, or bystander
After its defeat at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, the EU can be considered to have scored a relative success with the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015. With the mitigation ambition of the agreement exceeding expectations, the EU realized its policy objectives to a greater extent than it may have anticipated itself. This success was made possible by a moderation of the EU ’s policy objectives pursued proactively through an EU brid…
Managing Institutional Complexity and Fragmentation: The Nagoya Protocol and the Global Governance of Genetic Resources
This article explores the impact of the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity on the complex of international institutions involved in the governance of access to, and benefit sharing from, genetic resources. Conceptually, we develop an interplay management perspective that focuses on the governance of institutional complexes and their internal division of labor by means of collective decisions within the elemental institution…
Public participation in EU climate governance: The Underexploited Potential of National Energy and Climate Plans
Internationale Umweltregime
Umweltschutz durch internationale Regime
Umweltschutz durch internationale Regime: Interessen, Verhandlungsprozesse, Wirkungen
Internationale Umweltregime
The EU as an International Actor: The Protection of the Ozone Layer
Striving for a common foreign environmental policy, the European Union (EU) has developed from a laggard in the mid‐1980s to a partial leader in the 1990s in international co‐operation on protection of the ozone layer. Factors specific to the EU which impact on its performance in this area point to more general constraints on EU foreign environmental policy‐making. The EU has had difficulties in leading on issues not firmly established on its pol…
Das Kyoto-Protokoll
Die internationale Klimapolitik ist an einem Wendepunkt angekommen. Die Annahme des Kyoto-Protokolls ist ein großer Schritt in dem Versuch der Menschheit, die schädlichen Folgen des Klimawandels zu begrenzen. Dieses Buch erklärt die naturwissenschafltichen, ökonomischen sowie politischen Bedingungen des Treibhauseffektes und erläutert die Hintergründe der Annahme des Kyoto-Protokolls. So wird deutlich, wie stark machtpolitische Interessen die Her…
Kyoto-Protokoll
The Role of EU Internal Policies in Implementing Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options to Achieve Kyoto Targets
Linkages between the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols – Enhancing Synergies between Protecting the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate
Clustering of Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Potentials and Limitations
Politikanalyse.
Institutional Interaction in Global Environmental Governance: The Case of the Cartagena Protocol and the World Trade Organization
The competitive quest of the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO for authority to regulate international trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) exemplifies a typical interaction between international institutions with diverging objectives. This article first develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of institutional interaction that emphasizes disaggregation of complex interaction situations into separate cases of clearly directed inter…
EU Leadership in International Climate Policy: Achievements and Challenges
Climate change has taken centre stage in European and international politics. Since the second half of the 1980s, the EU has established itself as an international leader on climate change and has considerably improved its leadership record. The Union has significantly enhanced both its external representation and its internal climate policies. However, implementation and policy coherence, coordination of EU environmental diplomacy, an evolving i…
Interplay management: Enhancing environmental policy integration among international institutions
The Causal Mechanisms of Interaction between International Institutions
This article develops a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of the interaction between international institutions as a first step towards building a theory of international interaction. It examines how international institutions may exert causal influence on each other's development and effectiveness and suggests that four general causal mechanisms can elucidate the distinct routes through which influence travels from one institution…
The European Union’s Performance in the International Climate Change Regime
The performance of the European Union (EU) in international climate policy improved significantly over much of the 1990s and 2000s with respect to goal achievement (effectiveness) and relevance. However, the failure of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 represented a major backlash for the EU. This article argues that internal factors – including in particular the development of internal climate policy – have mostly enhanced the EU’s performance condi…
Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Performance in International Institutions – Conceptual Framework and Core Findings
This article introduces the analytical framework of the collection on the performance of the EU in international institutions and summarizes its main findings. We focus on the role of the EU in the decision-making within international organizations and regimes as a major locus of global governance. We suggest unpacking the concept of EU performance into four core elements: effectiveness (goal achievement);relevance (of the EU for its priority sta…
Das System der Erfüllungskontrolle des Kyoto-Protokolls: Eine Bestandsaufnahme nach sechs Jahren Praxis
»Vielmehr bietet [der Kommentar] auf höchstem Niveau eine substantielle Auseinandersetzung mit den Hintergründen, den Zusammenhängen, der Theorie und der Praxis des Grundgesetzes. Besseres lässt sich von einem Verfassungskommentar nicht sagen.“ Herbert Günther Staaatsanzeiger für das Land Hessen 2018 (50), 1494–1495
Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance
The United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro in June is an important opportunity to improve the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Transforming governance and institutions for global sustainability: Key insights from the Earth System Governance Project
The EU as a global leader? The Copenhagen and Cancún UN climate change negotiations
This article compares the degree to which the European Union (EU) managed to play a leadership role at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Copenhagen negotiations in December 2009 and the Cancún negotiations in December 2010. Our notion of leadership is composed of (a) direction (i.e. the degree to which an actor pushes towards a recognised collective purpose), and (b) goal-attainment (which is explained by three fa…
Insufficient climate policy integration in EU energy policy: The importance of the long-term perspective
This article assesses and explains the level of climate policy integration (CPI) in the EU’s energy sector, and challenges the widespread assumption that a high level of CPI has been achieved in this sector. We introduce a conceptualisation of CPI and outline an analytical framework to explain levels of CPI, drawing on environmental Policy Integration (EPI) literature and on theories of European integration. We thus add conceptual value by bringi…
Performance of the EU in International Institutions
Umweltschutz Durch Internationale Regime: Interessen, Verhandlungsprozesse, Wirkungen
Kyoto-Protokoll: Internationale Klimapolitik Für das 21. Jahrhundert
Political science (42 works) · Economics (31 works) · Business (27 works) · Corporate governance (23 works) · Law (22 works) · Climate Change Policy and Economics (19 works) · Law (19 works) · Climate change (18 works) · Politics (17 works) · Economic system (16 works)