Energy and Climate Law

The complicated German legal framework for hydraulic fracturing could become even more splintered. After a lengthy process Germany finally put into place prohibitive legislation on hydraulic fracturing in February 2017 . An initiative in the state of Schleswig Holstein now launched a legislative proposal in the parliament of Schleswig Holstein with the aim to put an additional, stricter state law on hydraulic fracturing into place. The only problem is: Schleswig Holstein is not allowed to do this.

On 9 October 2018 the Hague Court of Appeals issued a ground-breaking verdict in the appeals case Urgenda Foundation v The Netherlands, that has been discussed earlier on this weblog . The court of appeals upheld the intial verdict of 2015 and rejected the appeal of the Netherlands, ordering the state to achieve a level of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by end-2020 that is more ambitious than envisioned by the state in its current policy. The Netherlands are now obliged by the court to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020, compared to 1990-levels.  The decision is based on the duty of care under articles 2 (the right to life) and 8 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (the right to family life, which also covers the right to be protected from harmful environmental influences). From a legal theory point of view the decision raises questions about the possible interpretation of the precautionary principle.

A new article titled `Regulating Power-to-Gas in the Energy Union` has been published in the Journal of Oil, Gas and Energy Law (OGEL).  The abstract can be found below and the article is available here .

The Trump administration announced the end of more than one year of negotiations on a new trilateral agreement that will revamp the 25-year old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) shall be officially signed in November. But what is in it for energy and the climate?