This article is devoted to the climate change agenda of the Party of European Socialists. In order to identify its current main features, the author characterizes the development of the climate discourse of the party under the influence of socialist, workers and social-democratic ideological foundations, as well as the political situation in the European Union at various historical stages. Through comparative analysis and discourse analysis, the general evolution and main principles of the Party of European Socialists and its political group, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, as well as the actual development and current priorities of the climate agenda are investigated. Comparative analysis and discourse analysis are carried out through the prism of election manifestos and the top officials’ rhetoric. The relevance of the study lies in the primacy of climate change for the European Union and its citizens, as well as the substantial modernization of supranational legislation under the leadership of Frans Timmermans, a member of the Party of European Socialists and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the European “Green Deal”.

This article is devoted to the environmental agenda of the national party Alternative for Germany. The main features of this agenda’s development are being analyzed through its federal and European election programmes from 2013 to 2021. First of all, the author defines the specifics of the party’s evolution outside the environmental context to demonstrate the gradual enlargement of the spheres of party interests and the transition from an exclusively economically oriented liberal conservative Eurosceptic course to far-right and populist, anti-immigration and Islamophobic tendencies. Then the article illustrates the important role of the common European environmental context, where actions to combat climate change are getting more prioritized. This is reflected in the new course for the Alternative for Germany, aimed at denying the advisability of climate measures in Germany and the European Union. The latter has leadership ambitions in the global political arena in the fight against climate change and the high popularity of this environmental topic is among voters. It’s the reason why climate change was coming to the fore in the party’s populist rhetoric. At the same time, the author questions the possibility of near-term environmental and, above all, climate or even anti-climate coordination between the Alternative for Germany and ideologically similar partner parties in the Identity and Democracy group of the European Parliament.

The subject of the study is the involvement of political parties in multi-level environmental governance in the European Union, using Germany and its federal states as an example. This article describes the theoretical and practical foundations of multi-level governance. The place of European parties and their national member parties from Germany in the institutional system and decision-making process of environmental policy has been defined. For practical illustration, the climate policy guidelines of Germany’s main national parties (the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Alternative for Germany, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, the Left and the Alliance 90 / The Greens) and their European affiliations (the European People’s Party, the Party of the European Socialists, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the European Green Party and the Party of European Left) were compared with an emphasis on the new targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The unique opportunity for parties to participate in environmental policymaking at all key levels, which is not limited to parliamentary institutions has been highlighted. Appointments to environmental positions at different levels often correlate with membership of the most environmentally oriented parties, although the level of environmental involvement may differ between national parties and their European affiliations. Among other things, this has to do with participation in governing coalitions and dependence on a senior partner in them, as shown by the examples of the Bundestag and the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. The final decision depends heavily on the unity of the coalition at federal and state level, whereas in the European Parliament there is a great differentiation of opinions, which allows even the most influential European People’s Party to be blocked from voting.