{"id":47544,"date":"2025-05-28T15:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=47544"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:37:23","slug":"when-the-law-speaks-for-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/climate-energy\/47544\/when-the-law-speaks-for-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"When the law speaks for itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a lawyer working for Greenpeace, I know how hard it can be to communicate legal work in a campaigning world.<\/p>\n\n

Litigation is long, technical, and often invisible. There are few \u201cspotlight moments,\u201d and the legal reasoning can be too complex or dry to translate into strong, public-facing messages. We often need to reframe<\/strong>, simplify<\/strong>, and extract meaning<\/strong> to make it resonate.<\/p>\n\n

But then, you get an advisory opinion like the one just handed down by the EFTA Court in Case E-18\/24<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 and suddenly, the law speaks for itself.<\/p>\n\n

[A huge congratulations to the team at Greenpeace Nordic, Greenpeace International and Natur og Ungdom (Young Friends of the Earth Norway) for this amazing victory \u2013 you can read more about it here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
View of the TAQA operated Cormorant North Platform in the Cormorant oil field in the UK part of the North Sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In this landmark ruling, the Court held that greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of oil and gas (aka scope 3 emissions) must be assessed before approving extraction projects<\/strong> under the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

 The language is so sharp, you don\u2019t need to dress it up. A few highlights that speak volumes:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cCombating climate change is an objective of fundamental importance<\/em><\/strong>, given its adverse effects and the severity of its consequences, including the grave risk of their irreversibility and its impact on fundamental rights<\/em>.\u201d (para. 67)<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe release of greenhouse gas emissions is very likely to follow the antecedent action of extracting petroleum and natural gas in a project.<\/em><\/strong> If not for the project,<\/em> the embedded greenhouse gases would stay below ground<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d (para. 69)<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe environmental impact assessment prior to the extraction of petroleum and natural gas represents <\/em>the last point at which the public can voice their views and concerns that greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to result from such products will ultimately reach the atmosphere<\/em><\/strong>, and whether to avoid this by refraining from exploiting the deposits.<\/em>\u201d (para. 76)<\/p>\n\n

On the substitution argument \u201cThe likely significant effects of the project on the environment must be assessed <\/em>without regard to speculative analyses of knock-on effects elsewhere<\/em><\/strong>. Allowing developers <\/em>to omit information<\/em><\/strong> about high levels of greenhouse gas emissions <\/em>on the basis of a \u2018net\u2019 impact analysis<\/em><\/strong> would undermine effective public participation<\/em>.\u201d (paras 96\u201397)<\/p>\n\n

Sometimes, the law doesn\u2019t need to be translated. It just needs to be read.<\/p>\n\n

This Advisory Opinion could have significant implications for various existing and future oil and gas projects across Europe<\/strong>, and may also shed new light on pending court cases<\/strong>. The EFTA ruling shows how EU law can be used to challenge fossil fuel projects one by one<\/strong>, based on their climate impact and the failure to assess it. <\/p>\n\n

But this case-by-case approach isn\u2019t enough on its own.<\/p>\n\n

The long-term solution must be structural<\/strong>: the EU has the competence \u2014 and the responsibility \u2014 to adopt a ban on new fossil fuel projects<\/strong><\/a>. Approving new oil and gas infrastructure is simply incompatible with the EU\u2019s climate targets<\/strong> and with any credible pathway to 1.5\u00b0C. That\u2019s the direction our legal and political frameworks must now take.<\/p>\n\n

Mattia Bosio is a lawyer at Greenpeace European Unit<\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a lawyer working for Greenpeace, I know how hard it can be to communicate legal work in a campaigning world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33,29,22],"p4-page-type":[54],"class_list":["post-47544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-justice","tag-fossilfuels","tag-climatechange","p4-page-type-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47547,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544\/revisions\/47547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47544"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=47544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}