2023-04-22 09:00:00
The Declic Association sued the Government of Romania, the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests, the Ministry of Energy, as well as the Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Energy so that they take the necessary measures in order to reduce emissions by at least 55% greenhouse gases by 2030.
It is the first climate trial in Romania, according to the 2Celsius Association. The organizations 2Celsius and Bankwatch Romania are intervenors in the file, that is, someone who intervenes in the process to defend his own right or to support the defense of another.
The file was registered on January 31, 2023, and on April 10, the Cluj Court of Appeal rejected the exceptions raised by the ministries and ordered the trial to begin, according to Hotnews. The next court date will be on May 22.
On Earth Day, celebrated today, April 22, globally, Libertatea talked with Raul Cazan, the president of the 2Celsius organization, and Roxana Mândruțiu, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, regarding the meaning of this trial.
What the plaintiffs are asking for
According to the lawyer Roxana Mândruțiu, the associations demand the obligation of the Government of Romania, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests and the Ministry of Energy:
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- “To take all the necessary measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, respectively to achieve climate neutrality by 2050”;
- “To take all the necessary measures in order to increase the share of renewables in the final energy consumption to 45% and to increase energy efficiency by 13% until 2030”;
- “To adopt concrete and coherent plans to combat climate change, as well as annual mechanisms for monitoring and reporting progress in achieving these objectives, within a maximum of 30 days from the decision becoming final.”
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“A transfer of pollution from west to east”
“The process has a relatively broad vision, that is, it refers to the reduction of emissions in general in Romania, but what interests us, as an association, is especially the part related to transports”, says Raul Cazan, president of the 2Celsius organization.
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Romania is still a graveyard of second-hand cars brought from abroad, their imports being encouraged by fiscal policies and government programs, says the activist.
“Since 2017 we have been trying to find a way to stop or limit imports of used cars from the West. Because this is by far the most disgusting source of air pollution and CO2 emissions, which contribute immensely to climate change,” he reasons.
- Transport was the source of around a quarter of all EU CO2 emissions in 2019. Of these, 71.7% came from road transport, according to a report by the European Environment Agency.
Over 200,000 old cars enter Romania per year, explains Cazan. “The peak of entries was when the disguised Dragnea government, starting in 2017, cut the registration fee, the environmental stamp. In that year, regarding 550 thousand cars entered Romania, so over half a million old cars in Romania, of which regarding 300 or so thousand were only smelly diesels”.
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Most of the used cars imported are from Germany, he adds.
“This thing is pollution dumping, transfer of pollution from west to east, clearly,” says the activist.
“The big problem here is neither the Romanian state, in fact, nor the perversity of the Germans or the European Union. We are part of the single market, which is why you have quite limited, if not very limited, means of maneuver. So your public policies have to be extremely, extremely intelligent, so that they manage to bypass this dementia of the single market, of the free market”.
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The international context
The process started in Cluj is part of a series of strategic litigations at the international level on climate issues, explains Raul Cazan.
“We’re tying into this whole fabric of strategic litigation going on in Europe,” he adds. “Strategic litigation was something that was completely missing in Romania.”
“It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, we must use absolutely all avenues,” the activist states. “The climate emergency is probably the biggest global problem of our time.”
“In 2018 I participated in what was called the People’s Climate Case, in which several people in Europe sued the European Union, represented by the European Parliament and the European Council. And at that time we asked for no more and no less than that the emissions limit be 55% by 2030. In essence we were asking that the Paris Agreement be satisfied, from a European perspective, by reducing emissions by 2030 in proportion of 55%”, says Raul Cazan.
The plaintiff from Romania was a shepherd from Transylvania, Petru Vlad.
In the same year, street movements for the environment began, continues Cazan. “French, German high school students take to the streets, Fridays for Future begins. Moment from which, all of a sudden, interest starts to explode at the European level. We receive calls from the European Commission, from European parliamentarians, the Climate Action Network makes it easier for us to enter the European institutions. With the street movements of young people, suddenly the politicians in Brussels started to open up to this topic. I was also scared. Until the day before yesterday you were denialists. Suddenly, the entire political spectrum in the European Parliament, with the exception of the fascists and the demented, agreed, at least, with the scientific basis of climate change,” he recounts.
They lost the trial, but from a political point of view, it was a win, the activist believes. “The fact that Fit for 55 appears, that it gets a boost, gives an acceleration to the Green Deal. Fit for 55 is precisely this, that by 2030 we must reduce emissions at European level by 55%. Practically we won, politically speaking”.
The lawsuit once morest Bucharest City Hall
At the national level, the association sued, together with other NGOs, the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest to obtain the annulment of a council decision by which the “Integrated Air Quality Plan (PICA) in the Municipality of Bucharest 2018-2022” had been approved “.
“We have sued along with Ecopolis and several city councils for air quality. Clientearth was also helping us at the time. We won the case, overturned PICA in court and the endless drag began. For several months, however, PICA has expired. Now they have to make a new integrated air quality plan”, says Cazan.
The environmental activist says that interest in environmental topics in Romania remains low because research on this topic is lacking, but also because of the “democratic deficit”.
“People don’t get involved in society and that’s not their fault, they need to get involved in some structures that already exist, that are organic, that go by themselves, like civil society networks, well-entrenched local communities. It’s such a state of prolonged sadness, seeing that everyone is a victim of big companies and a rapacious state,” he adds.
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