Sabine Schlacke

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 20 (2022), Issue 3, Page 341 - 351

Cities drive climate change and suffer from its consequences at the same time. After describing cities’ transformative potential and analysing cities’ duties regarding climate change from an international, EU and German law perspective, the contribution looks more closely at German cities’ use of planning as a tool for mitigating climate change and the legal prerequisites (necessary) to enable cities in combating climate change. This includes an analysis of current jurisprudence of the German Federal Constitutional Court and of administrative courts.

Sabine Schlacke

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 18 (2020), Issue 3, Page 338 - 345

German climate protection law has recently undergone a paradigm shift: On 18 December 2019 the Federal Climate Protection Act came into force. At its heart is the stipulation of a nationwide climate protection goal: greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by at least 55 % by 2030 compared to 1990. This climate protection goal is concretised in the form of budgeting in annual emission quantities for the energy sector, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture, waste management and other sectors. Climate protection planning is to implement this climate protection goal. It is based on a climate protection plan and a climate protection programme. These new regulations raise fundamental questions for general administrative law and administrative procedural law: Can administrative law and administrative procedural law properly process the climate protection goals and climate protection planning introduced by the new Federal Climate Protection Act? In this respect, it must be clarified whether and how the new climate protection planning can be integrated into the familiar forms of administrative law. If it really is administrative planning that influences core areas of the economy, the question then arises whether this planning is compatible with the constitutional requirements for a market economy or whether, to put it provocatively, a kind of state planned economy is being introduced through the back door. In a third step, it must be examined whether climate protection targets and plans will in future have legally binding effects on the administration. Finally, the question must be answered as to which possibilities of administrative court control are opened for targets and plans.

Björn Tänzer, Jens Hofmann, Winfried Porsch, Sabine Schlacke, Johannes Saurer, Lars Diederichsen, Cornelia Ziehm

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 17 (2019), Issue 1, Page 100 - 108

Sabine Schlacke

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 16 (2018), Issue 2, Page 127 - 142

The case law of the European Court of Justice as well as decisions taken by the Aarhus Compliance Committee repeatedly compelled the German legislator to bring the 2006 adopted German Environmental Appeals Act into conformity with the EU and International law. The last profound amendments to the Environmental Appeals Act in June 2017 transformed this legislation into a small Code of Administrative Court Procedure. Moreover, it includes special regulations for the administrative procedure. After giving a short overview on the different amendments of the Environmental Appeals Act since 2006, the article analyses and systemizes the newly added regulations that can now be subject to judicial review. Further, it argues that the compatibility of the German Environmental Appeals Act with European law and the Aarhus Convention is still uncertain with regard to recent decisions of the European Court of Justice.

Sabine Schlacke, Simon Lammers

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 16 (2018), Issue 4, Page 424 - 437

The new regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action is a key element for controlling European and national energy and climate policies in the next decade. In the absence of nationally binding targets for renewable energies and energy efficiency, the regulation should contribute to the achievement of the targets set at European level. Member States have to establish an Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan, which contains the contributions to the European overall targets and information on the measures concerning national energy and climate policy. A ‘gap-filling-mechanism’ ensures that gaps are closed that may arise due to a lack of ambition in the preparation and implementation of the plans. The European Commission is authorized to make non-binding recommendations to Member States. The following paper describes the process and functioning of the new governance system. It outlines how the ‘gap-filling-mechanism’ works, including the possibility of infringement proceedings. Furthermore, it proposes to link the new governance system on national level with the planned German Federal Climate Protection Act.

Sabine Schlacke

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 5 (2007), Issue 2, Page 9

I. Einführung Die globale Erwärmung erzeugt nachhaltige Effekte für die Menschheit und die Umwelt: In seinem vierten Bericht stellt das Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)1 für den Zeitraum von 1906 bis 2005 eine Erwärmung des Klimasystems, eine Zunahme heftiger Nieder- * Die Autorin ist Privatdozentin an der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Rostock und wissenschaftliche Koordinatorin des Ostseeinstituts für Seerecht, Umweltrecht und Infr