Poland is known for its hesitant attitude towards the Green New Deal. Such approach is often expressed in the political discourse of the governing party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość. Despite approval of the European Green Deal, Polish action plans for energy transition are not ambitious. A significant part of Polish society, characterized by low environmental awareness, opposes decarbonization. This paper examines factors limiting and enabling a Green New Deal in Poland as seen through the perspective of Polish media discourse. Content analysis was applied to identify the frequency of aspects mentioned in national newspapers supporting or hindering the agenda of a Polish Green New Deal. The study is focused on media coverage of the ecological crisis, the European Union effect, neo-pluralist mobilization, or green conversion prospects, as factors potentially enabling a Green New Deal in Poland. It concentrates on media coverage related to the Soviet legacy, dependency on dirty energy, and the domestic power of energy firms and corporatist links between the ruling party and state- owned companies, and Euroscepticism, as prospective factors disenabling a Green New Deal in Poland. The findings raise a question if the promotion of universal environmental and energy standards is possible given countries’ differences in economic profile and level of development.

This paper analyses the EU’s European Green Deal and the changes to Food production it seeks to implement in its Farm to Fork Strategy, introduced in 2019. Attempting to establish whether or not it will enable them to succeed in meeting their goal of a 55% reduction of Green House Gas Emissions by 2030. The analysis on the EU’s food production system is done using a theory which looks at the production efficiency, the shift of diets and the reduction of food waste that the strategy seeks to implement. Arguing that specific shifts in these categories must be made if the EU’s climate goals are to be met. This is then compared to the actual policies implemented in the Farm to Fork Strategy. The thesis concludes that, while the EU succeeds in its food waste preventions as well as some aspects of its production efficiency, it is lacking in its strategy regarding shifting diets and that, in order to meet its climate goals, substantial shifts will need to be made in this category.

One thing the European Union and Germany have in common is their self-imposed role as forerunners in the field of climate policy. Therefore, this thesis explores whether this may be all the two have in common in this area, or whether they are pursuing the same objectives. For this purpose, a framework based on the theory of differentiated integration has been created to examine the extent to which German climate targets harmonize with those defined by the EU. Over a period from 2009 until the acceptance of the European Green Deal in 2020, I conclude that the German climate policy along its climate targets is, with minor exceptions, increasingly harmonized with the EU guidelines.

The Non-Financial Reporting Directive (“NFRD”),[1]is an important contributor to the European Union’s (EU) goal of creating a more sustainable future for all. By requiring large public-interest entities to report non-financial information relating to sustainability matters, the NFRD increases business transparency and gives stakeholders the opportunity to make more informed investment decisions, monitor corporate activities and initiate discussions based on current practices. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the NFRD as it stands today and to analyze in what way the NFRD has the potential to improve by chiefly using the legal dogmatic method. The thesis reached its completion with an appropriate timing (January 2021) as the EU has announced its ambition to revise the NFRD by the first quarter of 2021. The conclusion drawn is that the NFRD should be revised on a series of points. Most importantly, reliability of the provided information should be secured through a stronger verification mechanism. Other areas for improvement concern the enlargement of the scope of the NFRD and the implementation of further measures securing comparable data.  [1]Directive 2014/95/EU.

Europe is facing a climate and environmental crisis. To respond to this, the European Commission has launched several programmes, which aim to increase sustainability and environmental protection. This aim has been condensed into the policy document that is the European Green Deal. The European Green Deal sets out the aim of making the Union’s economy climate neutral, while improving environmental protection and protecting biodiversity. To this end, several different sectors of the economy need to be overhauled.  In EU Law, a key policy area is to protect free competition. Article 101 TFEU sets out that agreements between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition are prohibited. Similarly, Article 102 TFEU prohibits abuse by an undertaking of a dominant position.  This thesis explores what happens when competition law thus intersects with the environmental policy of the Union. The thesis identifies two main situations  of interaction. Undertakings can invoke environmental protection to justify a restriction of competition. The Union may also rely on its antitrust provisions to enforce sustainability by holding unsustainable practices as restrictive agreements or abuses of dominant behaviour, respectively, and thus prohibited by the antitrust provisions.  Generally, the thesis concludes that there is not enough information on how the Commission and the CJEU will approach arguments relating to sustainability in its antitrust assessment. The Commission’s consumer welfare standard appears to limit environmental integration to points where a certain factor results affects the environment or sustainability on the one hand, and consumer welfare on the other. The lack of information, moreover, is in itself an issue as undertakings may abstain from environmental action if they believe they will come under scrutiny due to violations of the antitrust provisions. Therefore, a key conclusion in the thesis is that the Commission and the CJEU should set out clear guidelines for environmental action by undertakings, in relation to the antitrust provisions. Similarly, the Commission appears to be cautious to use antitrust as a tool against unsustainable practices. The Commission has, however, recently decided to open an investigation into agreements which limit sustainability, which shows that the picture may be changing.

Industrisektorn står inför omfattande omställningsutmaningar i samband med dess höga klimat- och miljöpåverkan. Trots att en omställning av fossilintensiva industrier är högst nödvändig är samhället fortfarande beroende av dem på flera sätt eftersom de bidrar till viktiga samhällsfunktioner, arbetstillfällen och produkter. Omställningar är ofta omtvistade, där framför allt klimat- och miljöfördelar ställs mot ekonomiska och sociala nackdelar. Detta har skapat en debatt om hur omställningsarbetet ska genomföras på ett rättvist sätt. Rättvis omställning är ett koncept som ska minimera de negativa effekterna som omställningar kan resultera i och samtidigt maximera de positiva effekterna. Både EU och Sverige har politiska ambitioner för att underlätta genomförandet av en rättvis omställning, exempelvis genom den gröna given, fonden för rättvis omställning och nationella styrmedel. Syftet med denna studie är att utforska hur rättvis omställning speglas i debatten kring omställningen av svensk industri. Mer specifikt kommer åsikter om de två fossilintensiva industrierna Cementa och Preemraff att undersökas genom att analysera delar av mediedebatten. För att undersöka aktörernas åsikter har kvalitativa innehållsanalyser och intervjuer genomförts. Studien visar att motståndarna till industrierna framför allt lyfter argument om den negativa klimat- och miljöpåverkan som industrierna har, medan förespråkarna främst lyfter argument kopplat till negativa ekonomiska och samhällsmässiga effekter som en omställning kan innebära. Även om åsikterna går isär kring hur omställningen av fossilintensiva industrier ska genomföras på ett rättvis sätt belyser vår studie vikten av att beakta olika perspektiv i omställningar. / Deep decarbonization of fossil-intensive industries will be necessary to keep global warming well below 2°C. However, industries play an important role considering their contribution to jobs, local society, and necessary materials. Industries multifaceted advantages and disadvantages often result in infected debates considering how a just transition should be implemented. Just transition is a concept where the negative impacts a transition could result in should be minimized and simultaneously maximize the positive effects. There are political ambitions in both the EU and Sweden to facilitate a just transition, for example through the European Green Deal, the fund for a just transition and national policy instruments. The aim of this study is to explore how a just transition is framed in parts of the media debate concerning transitions of Swedish fossil-intensive industries. More specifically the study investigates the opinions about the two fossil-intensive industries, Cementa and Preemraff. This has been made possible to investigate through qualitative content analysis and interviews. The analysis shows that opponents to the industries mainly highlight the negative climate and environmental impacts while the advocates mostly highlight social and economic concerns. Even though the opinions about how a just transition of industries should be made differs, our study illustrates the importance of implementing justice in the transition process of fossil-intensive industries.

För att stödja regioner och industrier att minska växthusgasutsläppen och nå Europeiska unionens mål om klimatneutralitet till år 2050 har EU tagit fram färdplanen “Den gröna given” och fonden för en rättvis omställning (FRO). FRO syftar till att minska negativa socioekonomiska konsekvenser som följer av omställningen mot mindre kolintensiva processer i sårbara regioner och industrier. Två av fyra utpekade svenska regioner är Västerbotten och Norrbotten samt deras metall- respektive stålindustri. Studiens syfte är att med en narrativ analys av Västerbottens och Norrbottens territoriella omställningsplaner och semistrukturerade intervjuer undersöka hur tre policynivåer (nationell, regional och kommunal) uttrycker tolkningar av rättvis omställning. Med hjälp av en abduktiv ansats har tidigare studier fungerat som ett stöd för att identifiera rättviseanspråk (processuell, fördelning, erkännande och återställande) samt berättelser i studiens empiriska material. Studiens narrativa analys har belyst vilka aktörer det är som förväntas genomföra arbetet av omställningen och vilket utfall av vinster och förluster som kan följa. Dessutom tyder studiens berättelser att ett gemensamt arbete är viktigt för en rättvis omställning. Likaså framkommer det att den nationella politiska berättelsen präglar hur den regionala och kommunala berättelsen formas, samt vilka rättviseanspråk som dominerar. Studiens slutsatser är bland annat att återställande-rättvisa dominerar i den nationella berättelsen och att ett fokus finns på tekniska lösningar. Den regionala berättelsen använder främst processuell-rättvisa och betonar vikten av politiskt ansvarstagande. Den kommunala berättelsen använder också processuell-rättvisa men även fördelnings-rättvisa genom att uttrycka att medborgare också bör inkluderas i en rättvis omställning. / To support regions and industries in decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions and reaching the European union's goal regarding climate neutrality by 2050, the EU has presented a set of proposals named “The Green Deal” as well as the Just Transition Fund (JTF). JTF aims to limit the negative socioeconomic consequences that a transition towards less carbon intensive processes in vulnerable regions and industries could result in. Two of the four designated Swedish regions are Västerbotten and Norrbotten and their metal- and iron-industry. The study aims to, with a narrative analysis of Västerbotten’s, and Norrbotten’s Territorial Plans and semi-structured interviews, investigate how three policy levels (national, regional and local) express interpretations of Just Transition. With an abductive approach, previous studies have worked as a support in identifying justice claims (procedural, distributional, recognition, restorative) and stories within the empirical material. The study's narrative analysis has elucidated which parties that are expected to contribute to the transition and what wins and losses that the transition could result in. Furthermore, the studies stories highlight that working together is important in reaching a Just Transition. It also becomes clear that the national political story influences the regional and local policy stories, as well as which justice claims that are dominating. The study’s conclusions are, for example, that the spatial and temporal aspects of the story deepen the understanding of justice, and that recognitional justice is the least used justice claim in the study's policy stories.