The European Union (EU) action against climate change began in the early 1980s, soon becoming a priority and a fundamental axis of its environmental policy. As a participating actor in world climate governance, the EU has been at the forefront of the world struggle against global warming since the 1990s. This activism on the international scene has served as a stimulus for common action against climate change, and has, in the last 10 years, become a world reference and the most consistent strategy of the EU foreign environmental policy.

The most relevant initiative that is being carried out at the moment is, undoubtedly, the EU Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This instrument constitutes the first and most important international measure imposing maximum limits to CO2 emissions adopted in fulfilment of the Kyoto Protocol. Since it was adopted and implemented in 2005, the ETS has become the cornestone and the flagship of the EU strategy on climate change.

This book is the outcome of an international inter-university research project. It is meant as an in-depth analysis of the EU ETS in its two application phases and beyond 2012, while assessing its effectiveness as an instrument that contributes to combat global warming. Thus, the study will be useful to those who, within or outside the university sphere, aim to better understand the EU climate change action in particular as well as to all those who are interested in the European construction process in general.

Finally, The European Union Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme: abilities and prospects of a climate governance instrument intends to be a first detailed study on the ETS, and may serve as a basis for further and deeper analyses of the EU action against global warming.