c crisis has hit European countries at a time where their climate policy agenda foresees decisive steps at the national and at the international level. While the EU and its member states translate their ambitious unilateral 2007 targets into legislative packages, the international agenda under the UNFCCC is set to reach a new global agreement by the end of 2009. The EU is one of the major drivers for an ambitious deal. The financial crisis shifts a number of parameters of this approach and yields a new set of policy options. In particular,