Scholarly record

MAKING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION SUSTAINABLE: A GLOBAL CHALLENGE FOR LEGISLATIVE POLICIES, CASE LAW AND CONTRACTUAL PRACTICES. GUIDELINES FOR CHANGING MARKETS

Lucio Casalini

Abstract

FOREWORD ‘Climate change is about all of us. We have the duty to act and the power to lead’ – thus Ursula von der Leyen in her speech during presentation of the European Green Deal, one of the most ambitious growth strategies that since 2019 has profoundly transformed the approach of institutions, legislators, companies and society towards the challenge of the triple transition: ecological, energy and digital. Following what is happening in the field of digital transition and implementation of Artificial Intelligence, the European regulatory framework on production and consumption places the person and the environment at the heart of the economy. Thus, in addition to the political and social relevance, the terms ‘challenge’ and ‘transformation’ also acquire a particular legal importance, as they require all types of market to conform activities and contractual practices to the supreme person-value and the principle of sustainability. We are, therefore, faced with a ‘global’ and multidisciplinary approach that transcends the sectionalisation of the transition, requiring on the contrary an active and transversal collaboration between policymakers, politicians and citizens. With this spirit comes the volume Making Production and Consumption Sustainable: A Global Challenge for Legislative Policies, Case Law and Contractual Practices was born. Guidelines for Changing Markets. It represents the first result of ESCOP4Green – Enhancing Sustainable Consumption and Production for the Green transition, the international project whose idea matured within the research group also composed of Professors who teach at the School of Specialisation in Civil Law of the University of Camerino as well as their students and specialists in civil law. Fully in line with the renewed methodological perspective based on the continuous dialogue between theory and practice, the volume illustrates the current regulatory and jurisprudential scenario on sustainability issues and its impact within States through the critical examination of legislation, case studies and climate disputes. The aim is to develop guidelines that can facilitate the path of companies, consumers and public and local authorities towards the necessary eco-sustainable conformation of markets, also from an intergenerational perspective. The volume moves from the analysis of the results of the questionnaire that helped to investigate during the project the level of awareness and knowledge of people on the importance of sustainable development. It also contains the interviews with people engaged in green transition processes within public or private bodies: the reasoned reading of the results of the questionnaire and the experiences collected through interviews shows a concrete vision of lights and shadows of the difficult path of sustainability. The survey is a starting point for promoting effective initiatives to spread awareness among producers and consumers about the importance of achieving the UN 2030 Agenda Goals. The 2030 Agenda Goals are the compass of the European Union’s legislative activity that, in recent years, has implemented multiple proposals, ideas and innovative solutions able to grasp the complexity of the Euro-unitary system and the evolution of its hierarchy of values. These are measures aimed at modernising climate, energy, transport and taxation policies to respond in real time to needs of people, environment and economy. The second part of the volume analyses the main legislative innovations inherent to the several faces of the transition and shows how these affect the rights of a person. At the same time, thanks to the use of case study methodology, it offers the reader a more practical look at the regulatory framework, highlighting its strengths but also the difficulties encountered in the application. ...... The value framework expressed by the Constitutional Charters, the Treaty of the Union, The Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights require States to guarantee an effective protection for the individual. A protection that today, especially in relation to the environment in which we live, can no longer stop only at the ‘compensatory’ remedies of climate damage but, in the preventive logic of the precautionary principle, it should also be extended to remedies able to grasp the value of the temporal dimension in the protection of fundamental rights. Climate justice, conveyed in the courtrooms through collective actions, thus becomes the means to achieve a fair and effective justice for the existential situations of the person and, at the same time, it contributes to rethinking not only the social commitment in the transition towards sustainability but also the political and judicial one. Finally, keeping up with European regulatory production, the fourth and final part of the volume outlines the main proposals launched by the Fit for 55 Package with the ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. This unprecedented initiative has a direct impact on the industrial, energy, transport and construction sectors, confirming Europe’s leadership in the global fight against climate change. The current socio-legal scenario therefore reveals that every activity, even judicial, is permeated by sustainability in the perspective of a balanced realization of both existential and economic interests. The first indication that we want to offer then the reader is that an effective and successful transition towards sustainability requires first of all that the latter is recognized and affirmed as a principle with a high degree of normativity that expresses values to be achieved and interests to be protected. As one can understand, however, the ecological transition is not declined in the same way in each State even within the European Union. The European way to sustainability, in fact, is dotted with different cultures and visions and long is the path to abandon logic in which the monetization of the injury of existential situations is still the only moment of effective value of the Do Not Significant Harm (DNSH) principle. Only over time it will be possible to understand if the ongoing attempt to make sustainability an element of competition and growth has been successful. Camerino, 30 October 2023 Lucia Ruggeri Karina Zabrodina

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.35603/2023-escop4green773

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