Europe’s Climate Crisis Is a Rule-of-Law Crisis
Europe’s climate crisis is no longer just about emissions – it is about the rule of law.
Christina Eckes shows how rollbacks on climate targets, sustainability law, and the combustion engine ban amount to growing lawlessness – and why courts must step in. Verfassungsblog, 22 December 2025
Abstract
After watering down the 2040 emission reduction target, running the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) over by the Omnibus, and now attempting to kill the combustion engine ban, European climate governance has entered the territory of lawlessness. European climate governance is no longer only about the climate. It has become a rule of law issue and should be treated as such.
National courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) must continue to protect the rule of law, including when individual politicians, entire national institutions, or even coalitions of states attempt to discredit the judiciary. This becomes even more pressing if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) continues to abstain from robustly scrutinizing the European Union’s compliance with its mitigation obligations.
