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The Belgian climate policy



1. The National Framework

2. Coordination bodies at the national level

3. Coordination bodies at the regional level



1. The National Framework to Mitigate CO2 Emissions

Shortly after the first worldwide Earth Summit at Rio in 1992, the Belgian government decided to take action in order to launch the Belgian climate policy.

The result of the discussions took the form of the first National Framework to Mitigate CO2 Emissions in 1994. This huge framework had the ambition of reducing Belgian emissions by 5% via different non-fiscal measures concerning the energy, residential and transport sectors. A great hope was also given to the support to a European carbon/CO2 tax to help achieving this reduction goal.

This first pillar of the Belgian climate policy was in fact a failure due to several reasons, such as :

As regards the scattering of competencies, Belgium is a federal state and the competence related to environmental topics is split between the Federal Government and the three Regions: the Flemish Region (Flanders), the Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region (Wallonia). The table below gives an overview of the sharing out of different climate-related subjects between the four institutions.

Table on the sharing of competences in Belgium as regards the energy

As a result of this first attempt and in order to keep certain coherence in the climate policy of the federal government, different structures have been set up, at the national as well as at the regional levels, to coordinate and to promote dialogue between the different levels of competence. (3)

2. Coordination bodies at the national level

At the national level, climate policy is prepared, coordinated and decided by four main bodies:

  1. the Interdepartmental Conference for the Environment,
  2. the Coordination Committee for the International Environment Policy,
  3. the Directorate-General Coordination and European Affairs,
  4. the National Climate Commission.

2.1. The Interdepartmental Conference for the Environment (ICE)

There are 16 different interdepartmental conferences dedicated each to a specific topic. In the conference on the environment, set up by a cooperation agreement between the federal government and the three regions (see Belgian climate policy mechanisms), the four ministers for the environment and the federal minister for the science policy gather together to treat different environmental topics for which intergovernmental cooperation is required. They invite regularly other ministers concerned by transversal dossiers and decisions are taken and implemented on the basis of the work done by different work groups of representatives from the federal and regional concerned administrations. Those workgroups come under the CCIEP.

The most important workgroup as far as climate is concerned is the Greenhouse Effect Coordination Group. It coordinates Belgium's position through the redaction of strategic documents, the elaboration of decisions, recommendations, legislations and other legislative texts on climate change specifically or when climate change is one of the themes treated.

Its secretariat comes under the Climate Change Department of the Federal DG Environment, which also serves as the National Focal Point for the UNFCCC.

Another workgroup deals with climate: the Emission Group, in charge of national emission inventories and their compliance with European and international guidelines. It is also responsible for methodologies and their harmonisation within the three regions, for Belgian participation to European and multilateral works on emission inventories and implementation of obligations concerning greenhouse gas inventories.

Different "ad hoc" workgroups can be set up to tackle specific issues.

The operating principle of the ICE is based on consensus.

2.2. The Coordination Committee for International Environment Policy (CCIEP)

This committee is the main body for the coordination of international (other than EU) environment policy. Its operating process is bases on consensus.

2.3. The Directorate-General Coordination and European Affairs (DGE)

This body comes under the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, External Trade and Development Cooperation. It is responsible for the coordination and the follow-up of the Belgian European policy and for the Belgium's positions for meetings of the Council of the European Union.

2.4. The National Climate Commission (NCC)

Created officially on 5 December 2003 subsequent to the cooperation agreement of the 14/11/2002 between the federal government and the three regions (see Belgian climate policy mechanisms) , this commission of four representatives (one federal and three regional) is responsible for the national implementation of the climate policy (essentially the Kyoto Protocol), as for example the follow-up and implementation of the National Climate Plan 2002-2012, the follow-up and adaptation of policies and measures related to this plan, the redaction of mandatory reports for the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the EU (e.g. the annual national GHG inventory report for the EU and the UNFCCC prepared by the "Emissions" working group of the CCIEP ; the biennal evaluation report on the progress toward the Kyoto target for the EU, the national communications for the UNFCCC, the reports on demonstrable progress in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, etc.).

The commission gives also advice to the CCIEP on international climate or GHG emission policies and sets up workgroups on specific topics such as:

3. Coordination bodies at the regional level

Regions have also sets up bodies to promote the transversal dialogue on climate change across their administrations:

  1. CFDD 28/09/1998 in Maréchal K. & Choquette V. (2006), La lutte contre les changements climatiques: des engagements internationaux aux politiques régionales, Courrier Hebdomadaire du CRISP n°1915, 2006, 47 p.
  2. Bureau Fédéral du Plan, 1999 in Maréchal & Choquette, 2006.
  3. Fourth national communication, 2006.
  4. Fourth national communication, 2006.