The Impact of the Economic Crisis on European Environmental Policy

Charlotte Burns is Professorial Fellow in Sustainable Growth in the Politics Department at the University of Sheffield. She is an expert in EU environmental policy and EU policy-making processes. Charlotte is the Principal Investigator on a three-year project examining the impact of the financial crisis upon European Union environmental policy, which has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust. She has published widely in journals within the field, including in Environmental Politics, the Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Political Studies.


Paul Tobin is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. His article on 'Leaders and Laggards' in Climate Policy, published in Global Environmental Politics, won the INOGOV Best Paper Prize, and his Ph.D. was awarded the UACES Best PhD Thesis Prize. His work has also appeared in journals such as Global Environmental Change and the Journal of Common Market Studies.

Sebastian Sewerin is a Senior Researcher in the Energy Politics Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. In his research, which is published in Nature Energy, Research Policy, Policy Studies, and Environmental Politics, he analyses long-term changes in energy policy mixes.

The European Union (EU) has sought to establish itself as a global environmental leader but was hit by the combined effects of the economic and financial crisis from 2007-8 leading some to question whether the EU could continue to adopt ambitious environmental policy. This volume brings together leading environmental policy scholars to analyse the impacts of the crisis upon environmental policy in the EU and its member states. Authors analyse whether environmental policy has been dismantled, expanded or stayed the same. If policy has been dismantled, the kind of strategy adopted is analysed (active, symbolic, arena-shifting, or dismantling by default), and at what levels change has occurred.

The Index of Policy Activity (IPA) is applied systematically across the cases, which combine quantitative with qualitative analysis. Non-European cases are also included to provide a counterpoint for comparison. The book finds that whilst the EU has not actively dismantled environmental policy, its economic policies have had negative effects upon some Member States, prompting policy dismantling. Climate and energy policies have seen some policy expansion but there are examples, most notably the UK, where there has also been active policy dismantling. The main trend is one of stasis - environmental policy in Europe is judged to have plateaued calling into question Europe's much-vaunted environmental leadership. The book contributes to scholarship on environmental policy and public administration, combining empirical and methodological insights to give an up to date perspective on the impact of crisis upon European environmental policy.

This collection brings together leading environmental policy scholars to analyse whether the economic crisis has affected EU environmental policy ambition in Europe.