In late 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) made headlines, reaching a long-awaited multilateral agreement on a global market-based measure (GMBM) to regulate carbon emissions from civil aviation. This was hailed as a ‘historic achievement’, with 65 countries responsible for 85% of emissions working together to protect the global climate. Importantly, the speed of negotiations was greatly catalysed by the European Union, which was set to reinstate its own unilateral aviation emissions trading scheme on 1 January 2017 should the ICAO fail to reach an agreement by the end of the previous year (Regulation 421/2014). In the nick of time, at its 39th meeting, ICAO reached an agreement on a global MBM, known as the ‘Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation – ‘CORSIA’. It was clearly hoped that this would prevent the Union from proceeding with its unilateral approach. However, in its recent Proposal for a regulation amending the EU ETS, the Commission appears reluctant to immediately relinquish its leverage, raising political tensions and important legal questions regarding the compatibility of the two schemes.
Tag Archives: extraterritorial jurisdiction
Going it alone – the EU adopts its own maritime emissions monitoring scheme as the IMO lags behind
While the consequences of climate change have activists up in arms, the international community’s response has been fraught with stagnation, and remains somewhat disillusioning. After a series of disappointing Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), all hopes are set on the Paris summit to be held later this year. In the midst of this stalemate, the EU has been profiling itself as a protagonist of the global climate, with an ambitious Climate and Energy Package. In its latest move, the EU has adopted Regulation (EU) No. 2015/757 (‘the Regulation’), which came into force on 01 July 2015, and lays out a monitoring, reporting and verification scheme (MRV) for ships. The MRV requires ships to monitor their CO2 emissions according to a verified monitoring plan, and report the results to the Commission. This step has been on the EU’s agenda for over five years, and forms the first concrete phase of the inclusion of maritime emissions in the Union’s own reduction commitment. While according to the EU, the scheme would bring ‘momentum for international agreement’, the shipping industry reacted coolly, warning that the EU initiative risked putting multilateral negotiations ‘in jeopardy’.
The long arm of EU law: EU animal welfare legislation extended to international road transport
Copyright: Dirk-Jan Kraan
The Court of Justice of the EU has recently rendered an important judgment that will please animal welfare activists, especially those concerned about the welfare of animals outside the EU. Less pleased will be road transporters and foreign nations.
In Zuchtvieh-Export GmbH v Stadt Kempten, Case C-424/13, 23 April 2015, the Court held that the application of an EU Regulation concerning the welfare of animals during transport does not limit itself to road transports within the EU. According to the Court, it also applies to such transports between an EU place of departure and a non-EU place of destination. This means that, in the case, a cattle transport leaving from Kempten in Germany and arriving in Uzbekistan had to comply with EU law also after crossing the external EU border, notably on the territory of the Russian Federation. The exporter will now have to ensure that after 14 hours of travel, a rest period of at least one hour should be organized, during which the animals must be given liquid and if necessary fed. Subsequently, the animals may be transported for a further period of up to 14 hours, at the end of which animals must be unloaded, fed and watered and be rested for at least 24 hours. These rules are far stricter than what the exporter had planned to enter into his journey log: he had planned only two rest periods, one upon crossing the external EU border and another in Kazakhstan. The journey between those points was expected to take 146 hours (entirely in accordance with local legislation). Continue reading