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The European Union has played a significant role in climate change action, adopting pioneering legal measures, and promoting the negotiation of international agreements for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. This study reflects on the effects of European climate leadership in the implementation of an ambitious climate policy in the domestic sphere, as well as in the articulation of its foreign action. The climate leadership self-man-date established in the European development strategy is analyzed in a general way, as well as the implementation of this mandate through the action of the European Union in the development of the international climate regime; in the climatic coherence of its foreign action; and in the promotion of the global climate ambition through the internal market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has pioneered the adoption of binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and measures to address the climate change challenge for more than a decade. Amongst them, the European Union Emissions Trading System plays a central role. This article addresses the evolution of European climate policies, from the first emission reduction targets that were assumed under the Kyoto Protocol to the recent adoption of the 2030 climate an energy framework. Due to its importance, special attention is paid to the European Union emissions trading system, an essential tool to meet these targets at regional level and a cornerstone of European climate policies, now working for more than ten years. In this context, the European Union emissions have significantly decreased, although the effort ahead is, without any doubt, still remarkable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]