In a landmark intervention, in 2010, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) requested a transboundary environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Prunéřov II brown coal-fired power plant in the Czech Republic. FSM asserted its right to be heard as a sovereign state because the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions may contribute to climate change impacts. We provided FSM with legal support throughout the legal proceedings in the Czech Republic.
It was the first ever ‘transregional’ use of a Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment, meaning that the FSM are not located in geographical proximity to the Czech Republic. FSM’s involvement in the EIA process for the Prunéřov II Power Plant is a unique example under international law.
After a lengthy process, the Czech Ministry of Environment issued an affirmative EIA decision for the project. Although FSM concerns were officially rejected in the final decision, an assessment of the climate impacts was carried out. The plant developer is also obligated to reduce the CO2 emissions of its other projects by over five million tons over the next 25 years. The concept was presented at a conference organized by the Columbia School of Law in New York, which discussed the legal consequences of climate change and rising seas for island nations.
As part of the reform of the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive, the European Commission plans to develop mandatory EU sustainability reporting standards. The analysis of the non-financial reports of 1000 European companies by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency has proven how companies fail to report relevant, specific and comparable information. While this is true for all sustainability matters, it is particularly exacerbated in the case of corporate impacts and risks along the supply chain.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that mining at Poland’s sprawling Turów coal mine must cease while the court processes a Czech government lawsuit against Poland for illegally operating the mine. The Polish mine pushes right up to the Czech and German borders and is depleting people’s water supplies and undercutting houses in nearby communities.
Local groups and NGOs including Frank Bold, that is very active in the process, welcomed the Czech government’s decision to file a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against the Polish government for the illegal operation of the Turów lignite coal mine, which has been dug right up to the Czech and German borders, damaging local water supplies for nearby communities. This is the first such legal case for the Czech Republic and the first in EU’s history where one member state sues another for environmental reasons.
