At first hand | Vol. 3 - In court: Do court decisions lead to more environmental and climate protection?

The participation link for today’s event was sent by email this morning. Please check your mailbox and spam folder.
If you have not received a participation link, please contact Jonas Rüffer:

Phone: 030 428 4993 36
E-Mail: jonas.rueffer@ufu.de

This event will be held in German language.

Guest: Dr. Rhoda Verheyen

A new Bundestag will be elected on September 28, 2025. The current coalition government therefore has one last year left to implement the promises it made during the last election campaign with regard to climate and environmental protection. Olaf Scholz wanted to be a “climate chancellor”. The Greens wanted to phase out coal by 2030. During the election campaign, the FDP promoted the_{CO2 price} as a central steering instrument for more climate protection. None of these goals were achieved. Other problems seemed too serious, such as the ongoing pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the subsequent inflation, farmers’ protests and concerns about the rise of the AFD.

At the same time, however, there have been numerous court decisions within the EU and Germany that emphasize the importance of climate and environmental protection and directly oblige states to make progress in these areas.

Many decisions show that the role of the judiciary is becoming increasingly relevant when it comes to climate and environmental protection. Associations and societies with legal standing take advantage of this opportunity and use their complaints to force their own government into court in order to bind it to comply with its climate protection obligations.

In our upcoming edition of the UfU event “First Hand” we have Dr. Roda Verheyen as our guest. Among other things, she works as a judge at the Hamburg Constitutional Court and is currently a lawyer at the Günther law firm. She is considered the prominent plaintiff in the above-mentioned Federal Constitutional Court decision from 2021. Together with Fridays for Future, she sued the Federal Government for an insufficient climate protection law and – together with other associations and plaintiffs – ultimately brought it before the Federal Constitutional Court. In 2023, she published a book entitled “We all have a right to the future”, in which she sheds light on the role of the judiciary in the fight for climate and environmental protection. Dr. Verheyen is also a welcome guest on podiums and talk shows in Germany. We would like to discuss with her the role of environmental and climate protection lawsuits and, more generally, the role and effectiveness of the judiciary in environmental and climate protection. In doing so, we want to find out to what extent court decisions are actually able to advance environmental and climate protection.

The participation link for today’s event was sent by email this morning. Please check your mailbox and spam folder.
If you have not received a participation link, please contact Jonas Rüffer:

Phone: 030 428 4993 36
E-Mail: jonas.rueffer@ufu.de

Event details

Date: Monday, October 07, 2024; 4:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Location: Digital – The link will be sent to all registered participants before the event. (Please check spam)

Moderator:
Dr. Michael Zschiesche, lawyer, expert in environmental law and managing director of UfU.

Interviewer:
From 1998 to 2001, international climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth International. From 2001 to 2006 independent consultant, among others for the Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Friends of the Earth, Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD, London) and Germanwatch e.V., member of the German delegation to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2002 Foundation of the international network Climate Justice Program(www.climatelaw.org) with Peter Roderick. Lead plaintiff in the lawsuit for the Climate Protection Act before the Federal Constitutional Court in 2021.

About the format:
“First-hand information” is a new event format at UfU, which is intended to inform interested parties on various topics in the form of a parliamentary evening/breakfast. The focus is always on answering questions from the audience and thus gaining first-hand information. The guests will each give a short keynote speech before the Q&A session. The event is held at regular intervals by UfU and takes place digitally.

Questions:
Questions for the guest can be sent before and during the event to jonas.rueffer@ufu.de before and during the event.