National climate framework laws have become a common approach for establishing the governance machinery required to tackle the transition to a climate neutral society. Across the 32 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries plus the United Kingdom (UK), 22 governments have enacted some form of climate law. However, only 15 of these include objectives beyond a time horizon for 2030, and therefore, not all laws are on equal footing when it comes to establishing an operational, overarching framework to manage climate policy.

This report offers a readout of key information contained in Ecologic Institute's Climate Framework Laws Info-Matrix. It serves as a brief update on the status and substance of national climate laws in Europe as of summer 2023, with a focus on framework laws aimed at achieving long-term transformational change. It describes the growth in climate legislation over time and provides a summary assessment of the diversity of existing laws. The report further investigates five main provisions in more detail to show that these, often referred to as ‘good practices’, are unevenly distributed across the current landscape.

The Climate Framework Laws Info-Matrix is a publicly available, online resource that aims to collect, organize, and present information on the status and substance of national climate framework laws in Europe, currently encompassing the 32 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries plus the United Kingdom. The matrix presents a side-by-side comparison of existing laws and their provisions across five core elements: targets, planning tools, monitoring mechanisms, institutions for expert advice, and participation processes.