Roles of law and planning for a sustainable approach: institutional profiles

Recent climate, health and economic emergencies have put a strain on sustainable transition national and supranational systems and it has been showed how much human beings depend on the environment. In this context, it is relevant to address which role public law should embody in climate change adaptation. It is of course a complex question and it has at least two sides: public law could be an essential vehicle for implementing adaptation policy across a range of sector and a source for providing policies aimed at changing behaviour.

For instance, in the field of climate change, the regulatory problem arises in terms of good administration/governance. Public law could also, however, be interpreted as a tool for communicative action that may enhance co-operation in the municipal organization. In fact, the local government and private actors play an important role in the implementation of climate change adaptation. It follows that law-making is one of the key institutions providing the means to set priorities for climate action.

Being more specific, policy intervention sets objectives; the law (or regulation) tells how to reach them, determining the procedures that must be respected. Thus, policies are more widespread internationally, while laws at the domestic level.

Using the words of the HRH Sultan Azlam Shah, former Chief Justice of Malaysia, «legal principles and rules help convert our knowledge of what needs to be done into binding rules that govern human behaviour. Law is the bridge between scientific knowledge and political action» (23 August 1997). In order to catch the characteristics of the two tools in question it will be measured the effectiveness of non-binding solutions, such as the Glasgow Climate Pact (COP26), and legislative tools as the European regulation n. 2021/1119 on green deal. The expected results of the study are a lack of effectiveness of planning tools at an international level, while local legislation keeps exceptional leeway for local administrators, free not to proactively involve stakeholders.

It will also address the relationship between national and supranational level’s planning: for these purposes, it will be relevant to analyse, in a comparative perspective, the impact of the Italian Piano per la Transizione energetica and Spanish legislation 2021/7, on Cambio Climático y Transición Energética.