Appraising the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
8–9 July 2019 at the Erik Castrén Institute, University of Helsinki.
An international workshop building on a previous GOVTRAN call for papers for a special issue on
Appraising the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework. The event by is invitation only, but we do have some flexibility for external participants. For more information contact Harro van Asselt.
The Special Issue aims to be one of the first and most authoritative and comprehensive legal analyses of the 2030 Framework, a standard reference for academics, policy practitioners and the broader interested public. It seeks to offer a timely legal analysis of the EU’s efforts to decarbonise its economy in line with the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
In preparing its intended Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, the EU was one of the first parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to set new climate change mitigation goals for 2030. The initial targets have been modified during subsequent negotiations within the EU, and the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework is currently seeking to implement a cut in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 40% (compared to 1990), and achieve a share of at least 32% for renewable energy in energy consumption and an improvement of at least 32.5 % in energy efficiency.
Building on the EU’s 2020 climate and energy package, implementation of the 2030 targets has involved modifications to existing legislation as well as the adoption of new legal instruments. Key updates to existing legislation relate to the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The allocation of responsibilities among Member States for reducing greenhouse gas emissions outside the ETS sectors is governed by an Effort Sharing Regulation, resembling the currently applicable Effort Sharing Decision. The 2030 Framework also establishes a new Regulation for the Governance of the Energy Union to help achieve the climate and energy targets and align EU climate law with international processes. Moreover, the inclusion of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) poses new questions for the development of EU climate and energy law.
Most of the relevant legislation to implement the 2030 Framework has now been adopted. At the same time, 14 Member States have called for the EU to increase its 2030 targets. The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighting the benefits of keeping global warming below 1.5 °C compared to 2 °C, as well as the potential follow-up to the Talanoa Dialogue under the UNFCCC serve to intensify the political pressure on the EU to increase its 2030 ambition. While this is necessary and justified from the point of view of international climate law and policy, it raises questions concerning legal certainty and predictability at EU level.
Workshop Programme
Pdf version
Day 1
09.00-09.30 Welcome and opening of the workshop
Kati Kulovesi, Professor of International Law, CCEEL, UEF Law School
Claire Dupont, Assistant Professor of European and International Governance, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University
09.30-10.30 Keynote
The 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework: Taking stock, looking forward
TBC
10.30-11.00 Break
11.00-12.30 Session 1: Strengthening the Ambition of EU Climate Law and Policy
Chair: Claire Dupont, Assistant Professor of European and International Governance, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University
- Legislating for ambition: Codifying ‘highest possible ambition’ within the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
Presenters: Roderic O’Gorman, EPL Programme Chair – Law; and Diarmuid Torney, Assistant Professor, Dublin City University
Discussant: Stephen Minas, Assistant Professor, School of Transnational Law, Peking University; Senior Research Fellow, Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London - Participation in EU climate change law
Presenter: Sanja Bogojevic, Associate Professor, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
Discussant: Annalisa Savaresi, Lecturer in Environmental Law, University of Stirling
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15.00 Session 2: Renewables in the Clean Energy Package
Chair: Beatriz Martinez Romera, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Climate Change Law, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law
- The EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Framework and how net metering slips through its net
Presenters: Theodoros Iliopoulos, Doctoral Researcher; Matteo Fermeglia, Post-Doctoral Assistant in Environmental and Administrative Law and Bernard Vanheusden, Professor of Environmental and Energy Law, Hasselt University
Discussant: Alessandro Monti, PhD Researcher in Climate and Energy Law at the University of Innsbruck, Faculty of Law. Visiting Researcher at the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law - Power to the people? Implications of the Clean Energy Package’s provisions on citizens energy communities for Europe’s clean energy transition
Presenter: Joshua Roberts, Advocacy Officer, REScoop.eu (via Skype)
Discussant: Annalisa Savaresi, Lecturer in Environmental Law, University of Stirling
15.00-15.30 Break
15.30-17.00 Session 3: The 2030 Framework in a Global Context
Chair: Sanja Bogojevic, Associate Professor, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
- EU climate law sans frontières: The extension of the 2030 Framework to the Energy Community contracting parties
Presenter: Stephen Minas, Assistant Professor, School of Transnational Law, Peking University; Senior Research Fellow, Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London
Discussant: Claire Dupont, Assistant Professor of European and International Governance, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University - Climate finance mechanisms in the EU 2030 climate and energy policy framework: Accomplishments, opportunities and gaps
Presenter: Katrien Steenmans, Lecturer in Law, Coventry Law School and Research Associate, Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University
Discussant: Harro van Asselt, Professor of Climate Law and Policy, CCEEL, UEF Law School
19.00 Dinner, Ravintola Juuri, Korkeavuorenkatu 27, 00130 Helsinki
Day 2
09.30-11.00 Session 4: New Approaches in the 2030 Framework
Chair: Kati Kulovesi, Professor of International Law, CCEEL, UEF Law School
- Making sense of the LULUCF Regulation: Much ado about nothing?
Presenter: Annalisa Savaresi, Lecturer in Environmental Law, University of Stirling
Discussant: Seita Romppanen, Senior Lecturer, CCEEL, UEF Law School - Governance of the Energy Union: Compliance mechanisms under Regulation (EU) 2018/1999
Presenters: Alessandro Monti, PhD Researcher in Climate and Energy Law at the University of Innsbruck, Faculty of Law. Visiting Researcher at the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law; and Beatriz Martinez Romera, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Climate Change Law, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law
Discussant: Sanja Bogojevic, Associate Professor, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
11.00-11.30 Break
11.30-12.15 Closing and follow-up
12.15-13.15 Lunch and departure