16 November 2020
Greening Banks in the Face of Uncertainty
To this day, banks continue to plough money into carbon-intensive sectors of the economy while making inadequate provisions for potential losses. The European Central Bank’s 2020 draft Guide on climate-related and environmental risks is a major step in supervisory efforts to address this problem, which so far has escaped critical scrutiny. It sets out how the ECB will use its supervisory powers to get banks to properly monitor, disclose and price risk. As we argue, its current approach is unlikely to work because it asks banks to quantify risks that often resist simple quantification. Instead, the ECB should provide banks with more targeted guidance. That will make banking supervision more political than it is today. Continue reading >>
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30 October 2020
In Defence of Green Civil Disobedience
Throughout history, failure of the state to address and redress pressing social problems has given rise to political acts of civil disobedience. While activists typically claim that their illegal actions are justified either legally or morally in that they are necessary to protect a higher good, such necessity defences have so far been ‘notoriously unsuccessful’ before courts. Recent judicial developments suggest that this may be about to change, and that unlawful protest can be a legitimate response to a persistent pattern of state inaction. Continue reading >>
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24 March 2020
Corona und Klima – Krise als Chance
Warum geht in der Corona-Krise, was in der Klimakrise versagt bleibt? Warum folgt die Politik in dem einen Fall ohne großes Zögern dem Rat der Wissenschaft, und streitet sich in dem anderen Fall über so banale, einfach umzusetzende Maßnahmen wie eine generelle Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung auf Autobahnen? Warum sieht die Bevölkerung jedenfalls weit überwiegend im Kampf gegen das Virus die Notwendigkeit der Maßnahmen ein und verhält sich entsprechend, während beim Klimaschutz eine kognitive Dissonanz vorherrscht? Continue reading >>06 March 2020
Law and the “Value” of Future Expectations: Climate Change, Stranded Assets and Capitalist Dynamics
In both direct and obvious ways, but also in ways that are often backgrounded and obscured, recent discussions that fossil fuel assets and infrastructures risk becoming “stranded assets” if legal regulations to limit global warming are imposed makes evident the critical role that law plays in (co-)constituting “value”. Continue reading >>21 December 2019
Urgenda III: Die Niederlande als Modell richterlichen Klimaschutzes
Mit dem Klima-Urteil des Hohen Rats ist die niederländische Gerichtsbarkeit endgültig zum weltweit bestaunten und umjubelten Vorbild einer Bewegung geworden, die unter dem Schlagwort der „Climate Justice“ bemüht ist, die dritte Gewalt für die Durchsetzung einer entschiedeneren Klimaschutzpolitik zu aktivieren. Im Kern der rechtlichen Auseinandersetzung geht es um die Frage nach der Entscheidungsmacht der Gerichte in der gewaltenteiligen Demokratie. Dürfen oder müssen Richter für sich in Anspruch nehmen, zwingende Vorgaben für den Klimaschutz zu entwickeln? Continue reading >>
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29 October 2019
“An Idea Whose Time Has Come”
Human rights institutions have long grappled with the question whether established rights could be violated by environmental degradation. For most people, the short answer is, of course, yes. People have suffered for decades from health impacts of air pollution, contaminated water, odors and the like. The latest global issue to have a huge impact on the enjoyment of rights is climate change. Despite the close link between environmental degradation and the enjoyment of rights, international human rights law does not, as yet, recognize a right to a healthy environment as a human right. Continue reading >>
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12 August 2019
Klimanotstände
Am 28. Juni hat der Bundestag über einen Antrag der Fraktion der Linken mit dem Titel „Klimanotstand anerkennen – Klimaschutz-Sofortmaßnahmen verabschieden, Strukturwandel sozial gerecht umsetzen“ beraten. Das Vorhaben irritiert aus verschiedenen Gründen. Erstens aufgrund der gewählten Notstandsrhetorik, die nach Ansicht vieler doch vorderhand dem Arsenal der traditionell exekutivfreundlichen politischen Rechten zuzuordnen ist. Zweitens wegen des Widerspruchs von Sofortmaßnahmen, die keinen Aufschub dulden, und der Maßgabe der sozial gerechten Umsetzung eines „Strukturwandels“. Continue reading >>
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19 October 2018
The Dutch Climate Case Judgment: Human Rights Potential and Constitutional Unease
The Dutch climate case has reached a new high. Last week, The Hague Court of Appeal upheld the 2015 verdict which ordered the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. The Court did so on the ground that the current actions of the Dutch government to combat climate change are insufficient in the light of the state’s human rights obligations. Has the Court gone too far? Continue reading >>
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05 March 2018
Climate Change and Freedom of Assembly: Some Human Rights Questions for COP24
A little over a month ago, the Polish parliament passed a law on organizational issues related to the Conference of Parties (COP24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will meet next in December in Katowice, Poland. While the law has not received much international media attention, it has caused quite a stir amongst environmental non-governmental organizations and human rights activists. It prohibits participation in any spontaneous assembly in Katowice during the entire COP24 meeting; and authorizes the Polish government to collect participants’ personal data for reasons of public safety. Continue reading >>
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20 March 2017
Climate Change protection goes local – remarks on the Vienna Airport Case
Climate Change was brought before the Austrian Federal Administrative Court in the beginning of 2017. The judgement concerning the construction and operation of a third runway acknowledges the current development in the UNFCCC process and, as such, is of special importance and without precedence: According to the Court, the fight against Climate Change and its consequences for Austria overrides the public interest in the expansion of the Vienna Airport. Continue reading >>
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