A growing number of countries, regions and cities are adopting climate laws. These laws share a number of features: legally binding reduction targets, emission budgets, review systems and independent institutions to support decision making. These features are essential to make climate laws effective. They are also crucial for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The EU's current rules on climate action are comprehensive and detailed. However, they lack many of these features. In this sense, the existing EU acquis falls short of what countries and regions have adopted. It also falls short of what the full implementation of the Paris Agreement implies. The Regulation on Governance for the Energy Union and Climate Action addresses a number of existing shortcomings. It is a strong foundation for a Climate Law for Europe. However, gaps remain that should be filled in a reform. These are the main findings of a recently updated paper of Ecologic Institute, which is available for download.