Strengthening EU Environmental Law:
Legal Perspectives on Greening Europe
The EU's path to climate neutrality and the role of carbon removals
The EU's climate neutrality target, which requires balancing greenhouse gas emissions with carbon removals to reach net-zero levels, has become legally binding with the adoption of the European Climate Law. The EU relies on the use of natural and artificial carbon sinks in order to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions that will continue to take place on its territory and thereby achieve its climate neutrality target by 2050 at the latest. Carbon removals play a critical role in this process, encompassing natural solutions like afforestation and wetlands restoration, as well as innovative technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
The most recent measure is the Union’s legal toolkit of carbon removals is the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation (EU/2024/3012), which represents a voluntary framework certifying carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage. However, for the time being, carbon removals face significant challenges, including scalability, verification, and integration into existing climate policies and overreliance on these measures can significantly jeopardise the achievement of Union’s long-term neutrality goal
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Speaker
Dr. Melita Carević
Melita Carević (LL.M. Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ph.D. Zagreb) is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “EU Global Leadership in the Rule of Law”, where she teaches European Public Law, EU Internal Market Law and EU Climate Change Law at the graduate level as well as EU Internal Market Law and EU Competition Law at the postgraduate level. She is also the holder of the Jean Monnet Module “Climate Change Law in the EU”, which runs from 2022 until 2025.
Environmental Law Lecture Series
This lecture is part of the Environmental Law Lecture Series: Strengthening EU Environmental Law, Legal Perspectives on Greening Europe series. This series provides a set of important insights from environmental law scholars on how EU environmental law helps to achieve the aim of a high level of environmental protection in the European Union and across the world.
With the European Green Deal from 11 December 2019 the European Commission tabled an ambitious legislative program, based on fundamental aims such as zero pollution, do no harm, and climate neutrality. Many legal developments took place and are still ongoing, both at the European and national regulatory levels as in the courtroom, including the national courts. While efforts to protect the environment are direly needed, including effective implementation and enforcement, the regulatory acquis, and the flow of case law, has become utterly complex which poses challenges for acquiring a good understanding and application.
This freely accessible online (and hybrid) lecture series provides students and scholars with core insights into the state of affairs and further improvement of EU environmental law. The lecture series will run in 2023 and 2024. All lectures will be recorded and will be made accessible through our YouTube channel.
This GreenDeal-Net lecture series is hosted by MCEL, METRO and organised in cooperation with GLaw-Net and GreenDeal-NET. Maastricht University students will be eligible for certificates of attendance (see more information under the registration link).