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BVerfG-Klima-Beschluss: Folgen für Bund, EU, Länder und Kommunen journal article free

Felix Ekardt, Franziska Heß, Justus Wulff

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 19 (2021), Issue 3, Page 212 - 227

The climate decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court is probably the most far-reaching climate verdict of a supreme court worldwide. At its core, it calls for a fair intertemporal balance with regard to people's freedom, and it demands concrete specifications precisely by parliament. In line with our constitutional complaint, this involves fundamental further developments in the theory of the fundamental rights of freedom and the preconditions of freedom in interaction with the state goal of environmental protection. Human rights are accepted as intertemporal and transboundary. Furthermore, they are read in the light of the precautionary principle, and no longer limited in their validity to individual, singled-out affected persons. Furthermore, the 1.5 degrees limit of the Paris Agreement is recognized, at least under international law, as a binding requirement for climate policy. All this has far-reaching implications for German legislation. The reform of the Climate Protection Act does not do justice to the court's ruling. Likewise, necessary action at the EU level is also a desideratum. Furthermore, there are potentially far-reaching implications for other environmental problems which are often linked to climate change, such as biodiversity loss and disrupted nitrogen cycles. Civil lawsuits directly against large fossil fuel companies are now also a concrete option for the first time. Moreover, the verdict has broad implications in the interpretation of existing administrative law at the federal, regional and local levels. There are implications, for example, for planning horizons, for the protection of existing industrial plants, for state requirements planning and for municipal urban planning.


Verfassungsrechtliche Schutzansprüche wegen Unterlassens geeigneter Maßnahmen zum Schutz des Klimas journal article open-access

Franziska Heß, Justus Wulff

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 18 (2020), Issue 4, Page 386 - 393

The article shows which constitutional obligations arise for the state in the context of climate change and its consequences and how they can be enforced by fundamental rights holders. The fundamental rights do not exclusively have a defense character but also establish protective obligations for the state. Protective duties of the legislative organ may be violated through the failure to deliberate respective provisions entirely or through provisions insufficient to achieve the protection objective. The constitutional complaint is the legal remedy for asserting violations of fundamental rights due to failure to act.

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