Challenges Brought by Climate Change in the Field of Administrative Law

Challenges Brought by Climate Change in the Field of Administrative Law PhD. student Adina GUȚIU1 Abstract The paper wishes to analyze the challenges that the interdisciplinary approach on climate change and ancillary obligations will bring in the field of administrative law, by analyzing EU legislation in this respect. Climate change has become a rising global concern, significantly affecting administrative policies, regulations, and administrative processes. Considering these challenges, administrative law legislation and jurisprudence have evolved and adapted to address the new requirements. At the regulatory level, the impact of climate change on issues such as urban planning, protection of natural resources, project permitting, and environmental governance is taken into account. The article paves the way for solutions and suggestions for improving the legal and administrative framework to meet the challenges raised and highlights the importance of legal and administrative collaboration in developing the most appropriate policies and regulations. Keywords: administrative law, climate policy, environmental regulation, pollution control, environmental reporting, sustainability. JEL Classification: K23, K32, Q56, Q58 1. Introduction Fifteen - twenty years ago, when addressing climate change 2, one would discuss mainly about atmospheric pollution and the ancillary legal provision. Although perceived already as a rather complex matter, the attention was centered towards the control and reduction of the main sources of atmospheric pollution3: various gases resulted from the combustion processes (such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen), sulfur dioxide, particles of lead and other heavy metals, PM10 (small airborne particulate matter), various complex pollutants resulting from the incomplete combustion of fuels, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), methane and chlorophluorocarbons (CFCs). For this reason, after the issuance in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the Report on climate change4, regulation intended the limitation, at international level, of the six greenhouse gases viewed as responsible for the increase of global temperature, because it was considered that, due to their nature and diffusion, the limitation of atmospheric pollution would require a transnational approach. Thus, have been adopted the 1979 Geneva Convention on LongRange Transboundary Air Pollution, the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The European Union had an important role 5 in the negotiation of the abovementioned treaties and played an active role by the introduction of mandatory targets through regulations such as Regulation 2037/20006, Directive 2003/87/EC7 and others. Also, some multisector initiatives lead to the implementation of new targets in the field of cogeneration 8, promotion of renewable energy 9, 1 Adina Guțiu - Doctoral School Law, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, . J. Robinson, J. Barton, C. Dodwell, M. Heydon and L. Milton, Climate Change Law: Emissions Trading in the EU and the UK, London, 2007, p. 25. 3 Stuart Bell, Donald McGillivray, Environmental Law, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, p. 510; Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, The University of Chicago Press, London, 2023, p. 270. 4 The document is available online at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar4/wg3/ (14.05.2023). 5 See Augustin Fuerea, Manualul Uniunii Europene, Ed. Universul Juridic, Bucharest, 2016, p. 217 et seq. 6 Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on substances that deplete the ozone layer (OJ L 244, 29.9.2000). 7 Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (OJ L 275, 25.10.2003). 8 Directive 2004/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 on the promotion of cogeneration based on a useful heat demand in the internal energy market and amending Directive 92/42/EEC (OJ L 52, 21.2.2004). 9 Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market (OJ L 283, 27.10.2001). 2 Perspectives of Law and Public Administration Volume 12, Issue 3, October 2023 432 promotion of biofuels for transport10, energy performance of buildings11, energy end-use efficiency12. All these initiatives were meant to encourage or to initiate the process towards a more sustainable economy, by establishing in most cases, specific targets for states or companies to comply with, but as any transition process, without major or fast transformations regarding ongoing activities. However, following the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, we have seen a change of approach. The recent developments in the European Union’s regulations show that, with regard to environmental protection and climate change, there is a clear transition from a contextual regulation limited to a specific protected area (i.e. water, soil, air etc.), industrial activity (mining, energy, transportation etc.) towards a multidisciplinary regulation, where environmental law norms and requirements become special regulation against which one needs to validate any existing or proposed activity and/or future development. The end scope is positive, to enhance adaptation to climate change because, as seen in the last report of the IPCC13, the main barriers are, among others, limited resources, lack of involvement from the private sector and the public, insufficient financial mobilization, low environmental know-how, lack of political engagement, a limited sense of emergency. We will analyze going forward some Romanian law provisions currently applicable, some recent regulations enacted by the European Union or due to be approved and some elements of uncertainty that they will bring, both on a local level and throughout Europe. 2. Overview of current Romanian legislation In Romania, the main legislative act in the field of environment protection is GEO 195/2005 14. It regulates under art. 2 what are the acts deemed as regulatory acts in the field of environmental law, the scope of the environmental permits and the conditions an entity has to meet in order to obtain it and begin/continue to pursue its economic activity. It traditionally makes a difference between the environmental permit and the integrated environmental permit, depending on the impact an economic activity has on the environment. Furthermore, aligned with current EU legislation, there are clear definitions for what are the “best available technique”, i.e. the most advanced and efficient developed stage registered in the development of an activi (...truncated)