The country's overall performance is dominated by the complex relationship between the Belgian Federal Government and the autonomous regions. While on regional level some ambitious approaches exist, there is an overall lack of harmonisation across the measures, and those issues which require a solution on the national level often lag behind. Apart from renewable energy and combined heat and power (CHP), there are hardly any targets set
The Belgian climate policy is established until 2012, but is under development for the period until 2020. This process is expected to take several years. To become effective in terms of a low-carbon economy, short-term results are needed. There also needs to be a comprehensive climate and energy strategy towards a zero carbon economy by 2050. Climate and energy policy is distributed over different federal and regional organisations and knowledge is not shared broadly across these. Wallonia has a regional climate and energy strategy until 2020. The Flemish region’s climate policy plan is formulated until 2012.
The political standstill since the federal elections of June 2010 has impeded real successes or progress on a number of important issues.

The country has not yet defined both a long-term target to reduce its emissions and a strategy to develop into a low-carbon economy. However, support programmes for renewables in electricity production and buildings are in place. The agricultural and forestry sector are also targeted. In contrast, the important industrial sector is not targeted appropriately. The Czech Republic has relatively good support systems and programmes for renewables in all sectors. However, in the electricity sector, the support is not planned and guaranteed for the long-term. Although an energy tax does exist, it is set at a very low level and therefore does not give sufficient incentive to reduce energy use.
 
In general, the relevant Czech policies lack the ambition to really transform the economy towards a low-carbon future. An overall strategy (the National Programme to Abate the Climate Change Impacts of the Czech Republic) was published in 2004 but never updated. Currently, a new climate change policy is under preparation and to be published in 2011.
 
In July 2011, the Government has approved the new Air Protection Act, which focuses on air polluters, increasing the effectiveness of the charges for air pollution, reducing bureaucracy and allowing municipalities to define “low emission zones” in their territories.
 
The Governmental Council for energy and raw materials strategy of the Czech Republic was established in March 2011 as a permanent advisory body to the Government on energy and raw-material policy; its first meeting took place on 1 June and focused on the impact of the German decision to step out of nuclear energy and on the need to educate new energy experts in the Czech Republic.

Estonia focuses on the measures needed to meet EU targets and to benefit from Kyoto but does not target more ambitious reductions. Estonian sustainability policies are specifically focused on nature protection and the avoidance of pollutants. A plan to reform ecological taxes by 2012, which explicitly targets external costs, is included in the Development Plan of the Estonian Electricity Sector. The progress of this reform is unclear.
Currently the government of Estonia is increasing investment in the  Green Investment Schemes (GIS) to support the renewable energy sector. It will be financed from the funds received from selling CO2 quotas or so called assigned amount units (AAUs).
No new climate or energy strategy since 2009. The national reform programme “Estonia 2020”, Estonia’s strategy to reach the Europe 2020 objectives, was approved in April 2011. The focus is on the development and implementation of the principles of green economic growth in the next decade. For the development of the energy sector, equal focus must be placed on the sector’s environmental-friendliness, competitiveness and security of energy supply.
In 2010, the emissions from sectors that fall under the emission trading scheme (ETS) increased by 40% in Estonia.

The overall strategies in the Plan Climat, published in 2010, have a time horizon until 2020, which is relatively short-term. France was the first country to introduce a binding long-term goal of reducing emissions by a factor of four by 2050 through the Grenelle I law in August 2009. The Grenelle II law, published on 12 July 2010, presents the concrete actions needed to reach the defined 2020 targets in six main sectors: buildings and urbanisation, transport, energy and climate, biodiversity, health and governance. It is also supposed to pave the way to reaching the 2050 target of reducing emissions by a factor of four. This law also includes an obligation for private companies with more than 500 employees, public entities of more than 250 employees and cities with more than 50000 inhabitants to measure their carbon footprint (Bilan Carbon).
At the end of June 2011, the French Government launched a working group on possible scenarios to reduce the country’s emissions by 80% in 2050.

Although Greece has an official climate strategy, there are no binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050. The main policy development in 2010 was the publication of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan, aligning the targets for the long-term development of renewable energy with the 20-20-20 EU renewables strategy, with the main focus on wind energy. Setting this official commitment was a positive development. However laws and regulations dealing with the economic recovery of the country (e.g. medium-term programme on financial strategy, ‘fast-track’ law, investment law) are downgrading the priority given to green measures and targets.
In terms of implemented policy, certain sectors lack sufficiently ambitious measures, while the most important and emission-intensive sectors are rated very low.

The new government has committed to developing a Climate Change Bill in the near future. Exact differences from the previous shelved draft are still unknown. The government has begun to explore the potential for domestic offsetting in Ireland. A delay in EU approval for the extended REFIT scheme is causing some renewable projects to not be realised. Other schemes have closed due to budgetary constraints (e.g. ReHeat), while new schemes have been introduced (Biofuel Obligation Scheme).
Since early 2010, there has been a carbon tax of €15/tonne CO2 on liquid and gaseous fossil fuels. However, installations falling under the EU ETS are exempt from this. This tax will be doubled to €30 by 2014.

Latvia’s climate policy follows individual case-by-case demands rather than being based on a consistent, long-term climate strategy.

The country does not have a climate strategy including long-term targets. The second National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) has not yet been sent to the EU Commission. The action plan for CO2 abatement is expected to be presented in its first draft in October 2011.

The Netherlands adopted EU targets. No strategy exists beyond 2020.  The new government has announced a green deal with business, but details are not yet known (September 2011).
Innovation and research is of key importance to the Dutch knowledge economy, but research budgets were cut at the beginning of 2011.

Portugal is currently developing its strategy and is undergoing a comprehensive planning process:
- Low-Carbon National Roadmap 2020: (to be ready by 31 December 2011);
- Sectoral low-carbon plans: (to be ready by 31 December 2012); and
- Climate Change National Plan 2020: (to be ready by 31 December 2012.
Portugal still lacks a planning process that reaches beyond 2020.

The country faces several economic challenges. An overall strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed. Except for the forestry sector, policies are not sufficient and are based on a piecemeal approach. The carbon effects of policy are not prioritised. The efficiency standards in the building and energy sector are low; thus efficiency improvements are economically attractive and substantial reductions in energy use have been achieved.
The reinstatement of the Ministry of Environment indicates that more attention is to be paid to climate change in future policy and budgeting.

No changes have been made to the Spanish Climate Strategy. The government is currently working on a Renewable Action Plan 2011-2020 (Plan de Energias Renovables – PER). The target share of renewable energy sources of 20.8% in total gross final energy consumption by 2020 is lower than that set by the former action plan (National Renewable Energy Action Plan – NREAP) which targeted a share of 22.7%.