Implementation of and Compliance with the Commitments of the International Regime of Climate Protection in Selected Countries

Abstract

What is the relevance of international and domestic factors for the implementation of and compliance with the commitments of the international regime of climate protection? This article analyses the implementation of and compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol in the cases of seven comparable countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden. These countries have been achieving different levels of success in meeting their climate protection goals so far. Based on a detailed study of various reports and an analysis of factors such as the level of ambitions in the international environment protection policy, the GDP and GDP energy intensity change, the summary points out that GDP energy intensity change proves to have a significant correspondence with the level of compliance, i.e. with the rate of total greenhouse gas emissions reduction, which shows that there are close interlinkages between the energy use of national economies and climate change issues.