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In April 2018, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) reached agreement on its Initial Strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. The Initial Strategy was a success for the EU, as it achieved its long-term objective of reaching an international agreement on greening shipping. However, several factors call into question whether the “success” was the result of the role played by the EU. Using process-tracing, we provide insight into the factors and the mechanism that led the EU to achieve its objective with the Initial Strategy. The article finds that the EU’s goal achievement was the result of a mechanism triggered by (1) its overarching objective for action in the IMO on emissions in international shipping; (2) an entrepreneurial coalition partner; and (3) mounting momentum for action in the IMO. While the EU, including through its member states, played an important role in the negotiations, it only did so relatively late in the process, building on the successful work of the Shipping High Ambition Coalition. Based on this case study, we note implications not only for the proposed aspects of the European Green Deal related to greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, but also our understanding of the EU as an international (climate) actor.

The EU participates in many international fora related to climate change (for example UNFCCC, G20, Montreal Protocol), which collectively constitute the international regime complex on climate change (IRCCC). Using the case study of negotiations on the Paris Agreement, this paper addresses the question How and why did the EU use the different fora of the IRCCC to achieve its objectives in the Paris Agreement negotiations? It finds that the EU used the IRCCC in four main ways: employing typical multilateral negotiating activities, overcoming specific issues of the Paris Agreement negotiations, creating political momentum, and ensuring cross‐fora coordination. These uses correspond with the level of political authority of participants and the level of climate‐specialization in a given forum.

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Les négociations environnementales internationales ont été bouleversées par la pandémie de la COVID 19. La fermeture des frontières et les mesures de distanciation étant la norme, la gouvernance internationale a dû s'adapter. De nombreux forums ont choisi de mener les négociations de manière virtuelle. Dans cet article, nous analysons les défis et les opportunités des négociations multilatérales virtuelles vis-à-vis de la gestion du processus de négociation. Nous mettons l'accent sur les négociations virtuelles au sein de la Convention sur la diversité biologique, du Protocole de Montréal et de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques. Les données sont collectées à partir de documents officiels, de rapports de presse spécialisés et d'entretiens semi-structurés. Les résultats montrent que l'impact des formats virtuels est particulièrement élevé sur la transparence et l'inclusivité des petits groupes et la transparence vis-à-vis l’agenda des négociations.