Why Climate? The Drivers of the European Union’s Climate Governance in its Post-Soviet East European Neighbors

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has positioned itself as a global climate leader. The EU’s engagement with external climate governance is most visible in the six post-Soviet states of Eastern Europe. This article asks what drives the EU’s engagement with climate governance in the region. To answer this question, I distinguish between three logics of external climate action: self-interest, functional, and civilizing. By analyzing climate cooperation between the EU and the six states, I demonstrate that a combination of all three logics explains the EU’s engagement in external climate governance, but that the functional logic is slightly more prominent than the other two.