Burden sharing: Distribution burdens or sharing efforts?

The principle of burden sharing goes to the very core of climate policy in the EU. Burden sharing – or what Sbragia (2000: 315) terms ‘pollution federalism’ – is one feature of governance that differentiates the EU from other supranational bodies. This chapter focuses on the dilemmas that arise when emission reduction targets are assigned to Member States by governors operating at EU level. The question of how to strike a balance between stimulating emission abatement where it is most cost-effective while satisfying one of the EU's principal norms, namely social and economic cohesion (see Chapter 2), has preoccupied governors since the 1980s. The accession of ten relatively poor new Member States in 2004 has made it even more salient. Lacasta et al. (2007: 218) have argued that, by altering the balance between richer and poorer states, this enlargement has made the EU even more of ‘a testing ground’ for transferable policy ideas and principles.