Winning the battle of European Union climate policy

The European Union (EU) is considered an international agenda-setter in climate policy in its setting of ambitious long-term emission reduction targets. However, EU climate policy seems less ambitious when focusing on the policy measures adopted to implement these targets. The article focuses on this ambiguity. I discuss the extent to which environmental organisations and industry organisations influence EU climate policy, and argue that while environmental organisations have influenced the long-term goals of EU climate policy, industry organisations may delay their implementation, and thereby undermine them. Furthermore, I argue that this might be explained by the different resources and lobbying strategies of environmental organisations, on the one hand, and industry organisations, on the other.