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The European Commission has also established a mechanism to assist the transition of regions that will be more profoundly impacted by the 2050 carbon-neutrality target.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

On 11 December 2019, the European Union announced that it would enshrine into legislation its goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (see “EU Commission Formally Announces European Green Deal”). The European Green Deal Investment Plan serves as the European Commission’s (Commission’s) primary vehicle through which funding commitments will be made by seeking to mobilise €1 trillion of public sector and private sector investments. The Commission has also established the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) to assist those regions that will be more profoundly impacted by the economic and social transformation envisaged.

The legislation includes six key measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

The French Parliament has adopted a new climate energy package to tackle the effects of climate change and boost France’s energy transition endeavors to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. As per Article 4.1 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, carbon neutrality is defined in the package as the balance, across the national territory, between anthropic emissions by sources and removal of greenhouse gases by sinks. Six key goals comprise this latest legislation.

By Paul Davies and Michael Green

Six Portuguese children are raising funds to sue 47 European countries, asserting that their right to life has been threatened because governments have allegedly failed to adequately deal with climate change.

With the support of lawyers from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), the children will ask nations in the suit to strengthen their emissions reduction policies, and to commit to keeping the majority of their existing fossil fuel reserves “in the ground”. The 47 countries targeted by the legal action are collectively responsible for approximately 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and include Europe’s “major emitters”, such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

The children, who are between 5 and 14 years old, claim to have been directly affected by Portugal’s worst-ever forest fires in Leirria this summer, which resulted in more than 60 fatalities. Climate change is thought to have exacerbated the Iberian Peninsula’s extreme heatwave that extended the wildfire season from two months (July and August) to five months (June to October).

By Paul Davies, Michael Green and Kristof Ferenczi

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is the main EU instrument that regulates emissions from industrial installations (including power stations) and came into force on 6 January 2011.

Its objective is to achieve a high level of protection for the environment and human health by reducing harmful industrial emissions. It creates an obligation for all plants to operate using Best Available Techniques (BAT) and to be issued with a permit setting emission limits in line with BAT. Regular sector-based discussions then take place to update BAT to reflect new technology.

As such, by the end of April 2017, the reference document on Best Available Techniques for large combustion plants (BREF) will be subject to approval by a special commission set up by member states under the provisions of Article 75 of the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC Directive).