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.