Law Commons^™

Sustainability Criteria As A Tool To Promote Sustainable Products And Their Sustainable Production, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Coming publication

Summary:

Among the environmental challenges, which humanity is facing today, there are the threat of global climate change, unsatisfactory air quality, – especially in large cities, – and the fact that the resources of fossil fuels are finite. Biofuels have long been at the top of the political and scientific agenda as a possible solution to all the three challenges.

Not everything is clear about biofuels. The production costs of biofuels are still higher than those of traditional fossil fuels: without subsidies biofuels are not competitive. The environmental impact of biofuels has also been questioned, for example the …

Governance Approaches That Can Be Used To Implement Sustainability Criteria, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Implementation of sustainability criteria, both in legal frameworks and voluntary sustainability standards, is an urgent and important issue. In the article, three less state-centric governance approaches and their capacity to be used to implement sustainability criteria have been investigated. The chosen approaches are good governance, multi-level governance and selfgovernance. Their potential strengths and weaknesses have been pointed out. The research indicates that sustainability criteria can be implemented in different ways, which have the potential to highlight, strengthen or weaken different aspects of their function. The use of different governance approaches, or their combinations, can lead to different implementation results for …

Analysis Of The Mechanisms To Control The Fulfillment Of The Eu Sustainability Criteria For Biofuels In Directive 2009/28/Ec, (Part Ii), Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

The article analyzes mechanisms established to control the fulfillment of the EU sustainability criteria for biofuels that were presented in Directive 2009/28/EC. The article is the continuation of the research started in the work Pavlovskaia, E. (2013) “Controlling the Fulfillment of the EU Sustainability Criteria for Transport Biofuels”, which was published in RELP 4/2013. The conducted analysis is grounded in the opinions of the leading researchers in the environmental energy studies. The results of the article highlight that there are difficulties to achieve the desirable quality of control when the EU sustainability criteria are implemented. It is pointed out that …

Mechanisms To Control The Fulfillment Of The Eu Sustainability Criteria For Transport Biofuels In Directive 2009/28/Ec, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

To function efficiently, a framework in environmental law should contain certain mechanisms or supplementary elements that facilitate the implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations, for example such mechanisms and elements that answer for the control and supervision of the legislated requirements. Appropriately organized control mechanisms are important for a legal framework to function as it has been aimed for and to fulfill its purposes. The present article is focused on the analysis of the mechanisms chosen to control the fulfillment of the European Union (EU) sustainability criteria for transport biofuels, which have been presented in Directive 2009/28/EC. The analysis is …

Legal Analysis Of The Eu Policy For Sustainable Transport Biofuels, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Warnings about limited oil resources, as well as the necessity to reduce GHG emissions and secure energy supply1 have become prioritized issues on the EU agenda. It has been suggested to partially replace traditional fossil fuels with other sources of renewable energy, for example with biofuels in the transport sector. This has been seen as a promising solution for complications connected with the extraction and supply of oil, as well as for the reduction of GHG emissions. It has also become understandable that the quality of biofuels and their production methods need to be sustainable. The material, from which biofuels …

The Eu Policy For Sustainable Transport Biofuels And Directive 2009/28/Ec From A Legal Perspective, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

The enforcement and implementation of separate aspects of sustainable development and environmental sustainability can be challenging and innovative due to the complexity of this task. Appropriate policy and legal approaches and tools can be needed for this purpose. In this article, the European Union (EU) experience of developing the framework for sustainable transport biofuels and special structural elements for its enforcement are highlighted and analyzed. The central legal acts in this area, including Directive 2003/30/EC, Directive 2009/30/EC and Directive 2009/28/EC are explored. Advantages and disadvantages of the EU approach to sustainable transport biofuels are discussed. Suggestions for the future development …

Environmental Sustainability Criteria In The Coffee Sector – Lessons That Can Be Learnt, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

In the article, the issue of environmental sustainability criteria in the coffee sector is researched. Such important aspects in this topic are highlighted and discussed as reasons for the emergence of sustainability criteria for coffee and factors that make the production of coffee sustainable. Two widely used sustainability standards for coffee, the Fair Trade Coffee sustainability standard and the Utz Certified Coffee sustainability standard, are investigated more precisely. The environmental requirements of these standards in the form of environmental sustainability criteria, and mechanisms to control their fulfilment are outlined. The issue of control is separately highlighted, because it is considered …