PhD student: Mrs Dr S.A. Nóbrega

Promotors: Mrs Dr M.G.W.M. Peeters, Mrs Prof M. Eliantonio

Duration: 1/7/2015 - 30/4/2018

PhD defence: Maastricht, 28/10/2020

Abstract:

The European Union (EU), in response to its international commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has adopted a package of climate change legislation to reduce greenhouse gases emissions produced by its member states. The EU and all its Member States are at the same time parties to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). Measures adopted under the EU climate change policy framework are also covered by the scope of the Aarhus Convention, but the legal implications this has on policy implementation is not yet well understood. This PhD project intends to investigate how access to environmental information and public participation requirements to governmental decision-making in the field of EU Climate Law are guaranteed. More precisely, it examines the measures adopted by the EU to meet climate and energy targets for 2020 in view of: (i) to what extent these procedural rights as provided by the Aarhus Convention are applicable in this field; (ii) and how these procedural rights are applied at the EU level and may give rise to legal problems.