The present work presents and critically evaluates fundamental climate legislation, the core purpose of which is to reduce global greenhouse gasses emissions, particularly of carbon dioxide – the green house emission primarily responsible for anthropogenic climate change. The work first analyses international climate policy and legal framework on the international level. Considering the hierarchy of legal acts and the fact that Slovenia is a EU member state, the work continues to discuss EU climate policy and law. In order to meet international commitments, the EU must implement legislation and policy that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the production and usage of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. Each member state is required to ratify and implement EU law through legal acts. The work analyses this process on the example of Slovenia. In addition to cardinal law and sectoral legislation, the work examines legal sources include programming and strategic documents, which may not be legally binding, but are nonetheless important as they provide an overview of the current state of the environment, current regulations, goals to be achieved and other underlying measures that have already been taken. An overview of these documents allows for the identification of fields that require more decisive actions to be taken; the present work highlights two of those fields - industry and transportation. Based on the analysis of the current climate legislation the present work concludes, that concentrating efforts on the mitigation of climate change consequences is not enough. We will also need to find ways to adapt to the future climate reality. There is plenty of possibility for success. Law will play the key role in securing it, since it accompanies us at every step while its power curbs our worldview.
|