Deploying the European Green Deal

This book explores how the European Green Deal is being deployed in practice and observes how the EU tries to promote the protection of the environment in third countries.

Mar Campins Eritja is Professor of Public International Law at the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain). Her scientific interest has focused on the international and EU legal protection of the environment, with a special emphasis on the international regime on climate change, the international regime on dangerous wastes, and the environmental protection of the Arctic. She leads and participates in various competitive research projects and has published extensively in these areas and is the holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on EU Environmental Law (2017-2020, 2020-2023) funded by the EU Commission. In addition to her teaching duties at the Faculty of Law of the Universitat de Barcelona, she has held various management positions: Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law (2002-2004 and 2016-2021), Assistant to the Vice-Rector for International Policy, and Vice-Rector for International Policy (2005-2008). She has been a Fulbright scholar at American University and visiting professor at Nova Southeastern University, the University of Puerto Rico, Lapland University, the University of Ottawa, Dalhousie University, the Université de Montréal, and Strathclyde University. She was Member of the Direction Board of the UB Research Water Institute (2015-2022) and Member of the Center for Environmental Law Studies of Tarragona (CEDAT) at the University Rovira i Virgili. Xavier Fernández-Pons is Associate Professor of Public International Law at the University of Barcelona. He obtained his PhD in Law from the University of Bologna, and he is also Diplomate of the Centre for Studies and Research of The Hague Academy of International Law. He is Researcher at the Centre for Environmental Law Studies of Tarragona (CEDAT) at the University Rovira i Virgili and Member of the Jean Monnet Chair on European Union Environmental Law at the University of Barcelona. His main lines of research are international economic law, World Trade Organization, regional trade agreements, foreign investments, European Union's trade policy, trade and environment, and trade and health, all areas in which he has published extensively.

1. Introductory remarks and conceptual framework Xavier Fernández-Pons and Mar Campins Eritja 1. Introduction 2. Significance of the EGD 3. EU competences to deploy the EGD 4. External dimensions of the EGD and extraterritoriality 5. Some clarifications and acknowledgements References 2. Conditioning access to the European Union market on carbon footprint: the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Xavier Fernández-Pons 1. Introductory remarks 2. Measures against climate change and the risk of carbon leakage 3. Key features of the EU CBAM 4. Compatibility of the EU CBAM with WTO rules 4.1 The principles on non-discrimination between like products 4.2 The exception on measures relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources 4.3 The chapeau of Article XX GATT 1994 5. Compatibility of the EU CBAM with the global rules on climate change 6. Final remarks 3. EU regulatory action on maritime emissions: Unilaterally protecting the environment beyond IMO's global strategy Marta Abegón Novella 1. Introductory remarks 2. The IMO's global regulatory framework on the reduction of GHG maritime emissions 2.1 The IMO's first initiatives on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships 2.2 The Initial IMO Strategy on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships (2018) and its revision (2023) 3. EU regulatory action to reduce GHG maritime emissions 3.1 The EU strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from maritime transport (2013) and the MRV Regulation (2015) 3.2 EU initiatives included in the "Fit for 55" package to deliver the EGD (2021): the FuelEU Maritime Initiative and the extension of the EU ETS to maritime transport 4. The UE unilateral regulatory action and their controversial extraterritorial effects 5. The fit of EU regulatory action with respect to the IMO's global regulatory framework: between unilateralism and cooperation 6. Final remarks 4. The 2030 Biodiversity Strategy: The EU's international commitment and responsibility to reverse the biodiversity loss Susana Borràs-Pentinat 1. Introductory remarks 2. The EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy in the era of the "sixth extinction" 3. The external dimension of the EU Biodiversity Strategy: A global biodiversity agenda 3.1 The EU's international commitments to protect biodiversity worldwide 3.2 Facing the responsibilities of the EU's external biodiversity footprint: the structural and systemic causes of biodiversity loss 4. The "nature-positive" economy leads the way; ecological integrity lags behind 5. Final remarks 5. Understanding the deforestation initiative for European trade in products from the Brazilian Amazon Márcia Rodrigues Bertoldi 1. Introductory remarks 2. The current state of deforestation in the Amazon: we are eating the forest 3. The EGD and the Deforestation Initiative 4. A new regulation for a "standing forest" 5. Considerations about possible impacts of the deforestation initiative in Brazil 6. Special reference to the absence of principles of environmental law 7. Final remarks 6. Zero Chemical Pollution: A real new impetus for change? Mar Campins Eritja 1. Introductory remarks 2. Specific objectives of the Zero Pollution initiative 3. Strategies to achieve the objectives of the Zero Pollution initiative in chemicals and chemical wastes 4. Legal challenges posed by the Zero Pollution initiative 4.1 Combining the definition of "zero pollution" with the high level of environmental protection 4.2 The legal basis for EU measures related to Zero Pollution 4.3 The external dimension of EU measures related to production, marketing, and use of chemicals 5. Final remarks 7. Farm to Fork: Strengths and Weaknesses of a European Strategy for a Global Transition towards Fair, Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems Xavier Pons Rafols 1. Introductory remarks 2. The international approach to food systems and food security 3. General overview of the F2F Strategy of the EU 4. The role of the EU's F2F Strategy in enabling global transition of food systems 5. Final remarks 8. The European Green Deal and the Energy Charter Treaty: Chronicle of a Breakup Foretold? Gastón Medici-Colombo 1. Introductory remarks 2. The ECT investment protection regime 3. The EGD and the need for bold regulatory action (in the fossil fuel sector) 4. The climate "regulatory chill" of investment protection 5. The ECT "fossil fuel litigation affair" 6. The "modest" ECT modernization 7. The European exodus 8. Final remarks 9. From Climate diplomacy to Green Deal diplomacy Teresa Fajardo del Castillo 1. Introductory remarks 2. From Climate Diplomacy to Green Deal Diplomacy 3. The EGD Diplomacy at the climate change COPs 4. The new generation of Free Trade and Association Agreements and the Global Green Deal 5. The Global Climate Change Alliance 6. The EGD Diplomacy and the Global Gateway 7. Final remarks 10. The European Green Deal and Public Procurement Law: Its Extraterritorial Reach beyond the EU's Borders Ezgi Uysal and Willem A. Janssen 1. Introductory remarks 2. EU public procurement law and green procurement 3. Public procurement in the EU Green Deal 3.1 Nudging the member States towards GPP 3.2 Mandating GPP through sectoral legislation 4. The extraterritorial effects of public procurement under the Green Deal 4.1 Extraterritorial effects of PPMs of an economic operator's supply chain: relevance of the link to the subject matter of the contract and life-cycle thinking 4.2 Extraterritorial effects of an economic operator's violation of environmental law: the relevance of CSDD and the Public Sector Directive 4.3 Ensuring that extraterritorial effects materialize: Contract Compliance 5. Final remarks 11. The European Green Deal Investment Plan. The External Impact of Mobilizing Climate Finance with an Experimentalist Design Gonzalo Larrea 1. Introductory remarks 2. The experimentalist design of the EGDIP 3. The EGDIP's external potential 3.1 The UNFCCC Financial Mechanism 3.2 Replicating the EGDIP's experimentalist design 4. Final remarks 12. Business, Human Rights and the Environment: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Mandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Alfonso González Bondia 1. Introductory remarks 2. Adoption of a voluntary approach to CSR 3. First steps towards mandatory human rights and environmental DD 3.1 Timber and other products associated with deforestation or forest degradation 3.2 Minerals from conflict zones 4. The proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability DD 5. Final remarks 13. Implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation as a cornerstone of the European Green Deal Alexandre Peñalver i Cabré 1. Introductory remarks 2. The role of the EU in implementing and enforcing environmental legislation 3. The most important causes of the lack of environmental implementation and their main negative effects 4. Mechanisms for strengthening the implementation and enforcement of environmental law 5. Information on environmental enforcement 5.1 The importance of information for the enforcement of environmental legislation 5.2 Annual Reports of the EU Commission monitoring the application of EU law 5.3 Environmental Implementation Review (EIR) 5.4 The EU Network for the IMPEL 5.5 Reports from international organizations 6. Final remarks 14. Joint analysis of cross-cutting issues and final considerations Xavier Fernández-Pons, Teresa Fajardo del Castillo, Mar Campins Eritja 1. Introduction: the weaknesses of current global environmental protection systems 2. The ambition of the EGD's external dimensions 3. Limitations of the EGD's external dimensions 4. Towards a Global Green Deal? References Index