Omnibus Simplification Package – The European Commission’s change of heart on corporate sustainability
by Saga Eriksson, Doctoral Researcher In February 2025 the European Commission introduced the Omnibus Simplification Package aimed at making changes to key sustainability reporting provisions outlined in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Taxonomy Regulation. The main aim of the Package is to reduce the scope […]
Climate Justice at the ICJ: Human Rights Implications of the Advisory Opinion
By Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Annalisa Savaresi, Claudia Ituarte-Lima and Corina Heri This blog post was first published on GNHRE (30 August 2025). The International Court of Justice’s landmark Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with Respect to Climate Change delivered on 23 July 2025 has unequivocally placed human rights at the centre of the applicable law on climate change. With it, the International Court […]
Climate tipping points and international climate law: Is law equipped for the challenge?
By Vivien Reh, Doctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Finland, among many other countries in Europe and around the world, has seen a record-breaking heat wave for much of July 2025, surpassing previous records and feeding into a growing global acceptance that the occurrence of extreme weather events seems to have become the […]
The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: A Business and Human Rights Perspective
by Annalisa Savaresi, Professor of International Environmental Law at University of Eastern Finland and Marisa McVey, Lecturer in Law at Queen’s University Belfast This blog post was first published on Opinio Juris (4 August 2025). State obligations in relation to climate change have come under increasing scrutiny by international courts in recent years. In July 2025, it […]
Litigating for the future: Global climate litigation representing future generations
by Nina Koistinen, Doctoral Researcher “[T]he lack of a historical and legal tradition protecting the environment for future generations almost certainly led us to the position we are in now”. These were the words of the Washington State Court of Appeal in Aji P v Washington, a lawsuit brought by children and youth challenging the […]
The EU’s Dilemma on International Carbon Credits
by Kateryna Holzer, Senior Researcher This blogpost is based on research under the project ‘Voluntary carbon offsetting in (climate) action: Perception coalitions, representations, and regulation (OFFCORR)’, funded by the Research Council of Finland (grant 355944). Opinions expressed are however those of the author only. With the adoption of additional decisions on registries and standards for […]
Science or politics first? Snapshots from recent IPCC and IPBES Plenary sessions
By Moritz Petersmann, Doctoral Researcher working on PhD project: Fit for governing the triple planetary emergency? Towards enabling sustainability transformations at international science-policy interfaces With the political landscape in many parts of the world tilting to the right and populist agendas shaping government programs, science is increasingly under threat. Populist agendas often come with a […]
Simplification or deregulation? Evaluating the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal and Action Plan for Affordable Energy
by Matti Gurreck, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Photo by Ellie Meh on Unsplash. The European Commission published its flagship policy package called the Clean Industrial Deal (CID) on 26 February 2025. In the run-up to the CID, environmental groups feared the new Commission’s plans might be a backlash for the environmental […]
A Recipe for Zero-Pollution Climate Policies: Win-win Solutions for Cleaning the Air and Protecting the Climate
By Niklas Löther, Project Researcher Photo by Benjamin on Unsplash. Around 400,000 premature deaths each year are attributable to air pollution in Europe. Yet, the subject is increasingly sidelined by the climate crisis in public debate – despite the European Green Deal setting both carbon-neutrality and zero-pollution as goals for 2050. Indeed, we should not […]
Kestävyysmurros edellyttää huomion kiinnittämistä ympäristövaikutusten seurantaan
Kirjoittaja: Anni Kärkkäinen, väitöskirjatutkija Blogiteksti perustuu ympäristövaikutusten arvioinnin asemaa kestävyysmurroksessa tarkastelevaan väitöskirja-artikkeliin, joka on osa strategisen tutkimusneuvoston rahoittamaa hanketta ”Mutkikkaiden oikeusjärjestelmien resilienssi kestävyysmurroksessa” (358392). Ympäristövaikutusten arviointi (YVA-menettely) on ennakollinen prosessi, joka mahdollistaa suurten hankkeiden merkittävien ympäristövaikutusten kartoittamisen varhaisessa vaiheessa ennen hanketoiminnan aloittamista. Haitallisten vaikutusten ehkäisy edellyttää toisaalta, ettei vaikutusten tarkastelu lopu hanketoiminnan aloittamiseen, vaan se […]