The Regulatory Approach of the EU in View of Liability for Climate Change Damage
This paper aims to launch a debate as whether and how provisions with regard to the responsibility of present polluters for future damage should be considered within the applicable regulations. The examination focuses on the European legal framework for climate protection, and gives some specific attention to the coal fired electricity generating installations. The structure is as follows: section 2 gives a general introduction into such fossil fuel fired electricity generation, and section 3 describes present regulatory approaches to this industry. Section 4 will then elaborate on the possibility of introducing provisions into the regulatory regime that make polluters responsible for future damage. In particular the possibility of action on the Member State level will be discussed, although the debate is very explorative and other options, like notably an improvement of the EU ETS itself, should get further attention. Section 5 concludes the paper with some first observations