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Chapter 3 contains an in-depth analysis of climate policy in the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters – China, the European Union and the USA. The chapter details how they each face their unique challenges and how they have taken different routes in developing and implementing climate policy. China’s approach to climate policy reflects a governance system that is driven more by executive orders than acts of parliament. Accordingly, China has chosen to embed its climate change objectives in successive Five-Year-Plans. In the EU, policy making requires agreement across member states. Member states have decided to make climate policy an EU matter, setting binding EU-wide targets on carbon emissions, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and setting up a pan-European emissions trading scheme. US policy makers have taken a regulatory approach, with federal action based on an existing piece of legislation, the 1990 Clean Air Act. This reflects the contested nature of climate change policy, which has made it difficult to pass meaningful climate change legislation at the federal level. However, many states have moved ahead of the federal level, often enacting world-leading climate legislation.

Chapter 4 describes the unique challenges of least developing countries (LDCs) in climate policy and traces their growing engagement on climate change. The motivations and challenges of LDCs are very different from those of industrialized economies, due both to their low emissions profile and their high vulnerability to climate impacts. As energy-related emissions are low, the transition to a low-carbon economy of LDCs simultaneously serves mitigation, adaptation and development objectives. However, integrating climate change into general development plans remains a challenge, and fewer than half of the LDCs have done so. Other focus areas are disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, land use change and access to international climate finance, although there is less legislative activity in these areas. A growing number of countries are contemplating dedicated climate laws, but climate action is still predominantly pursued through policies and executive instruments, rather than formal acts of parliament.