Yes, the Paris climate deal was toothless. But it's the EU we need to worry about

Reading the Sunday newspapers, you could be forgiven for thinking an earth-shattering agreement was reached in Paris – one which outdid even the Kyoto Protocol in the way of binding agreement across the world on climate action. The deal was heavy on political will and ambition (or at least expressions thereof) but as many experts are now queuing up to say, offered little in the form of hard targets and binding commitments around reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This is of course a pragmatic approach to doing policy at the global level, particularly given the extreme variation in capacity and priorities between countries operating at vastly different levels of development. If the EU had had its way however, all of targets laid down in Paris would have been legally binding. And in the meantime, Brussels is only too happy to take the lead in imposing its own, a pattern it has honed since Kyoto and is likely to up the ante in over the coming years.