The General Court of the European Union (EU) today rejected the appeal filed by two environmental organizations challenging the annual greenhouse gas emission allocations set for the Member States between 2023 and 2030.
The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-Europe) had asked the European Commission to revisit its decision on those allocations, arguing that the emission reduction targets on which it was based were insufficient in light of European law, the Paris Agreement, and other international obligations.
After the petition was rejected by the Community executive, the organizations appealed to the General Court, which today upheld the Commission’s position and dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
The court understood that the NGOs were not, in reality, challenging errors made by the Commission when calculating the annual allocations, but rather the climate objectives themselves previously set by the European Parliament and the Council in EU legislation.
The judges noted that, in fixing the annual quotas, the Commission merely implemented the rules approved by European lawmakers and did not have the authority to modify the emission reduction targets or replace them with more ambitious ones.
Allowing an internal Commission review to be used to challenge these objectives would, according to the ruling, permit the Community Executive to indirectly review legislative decisions adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.
