There's no doubt today that mankind has contributed to the changing climate by her use of fossil fuels. This must change in the nearby future. The European leaders are expressing concern that renewable energy sources are not being used to their full potential. The 2001/77/EC Directive on Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources was accepted in 2001 to encourage the development of energy production from renewable sources, which is considered a step towards the fulfillment of the goal of the Union, that 12% of the gross energy consumption should come from renewable energy sources by the year 2010. The objective of this thesis is to illuminate the common legislation of the EU regarding renewable energy with regard to goal fulfillment, judicial quality, conflicts with other goals of the EU and other faults. The objective is reached by a hermeneutic study in which interpretation of written text is the main method. To analyze whether the EU stimulates the usage of renewable energy within the union I have applied a method used in audits. I have analyzed an empirical material and drawn conclusions using an inductive method. It is difficult to make specific demands on the legislation of member states because the circumstances vary heavily depending on external factors and other laws. The laws of the European Union must conform to a large number of criteria to be considered rational and legitimate. They must be in line with the basic goals of the union, serve the purpose of the legislator, not violate any human rights and be coherent with other legislation. Directive 2001/77/EC complies with the fundamental goals of the union. It also complies fully with basic human rights, particularly the right to a good environment, which is included in the third generation human rights. The directive does not however meet all the political rationalities because it does not serve all intended political purposes. The directive was accepted as an important step for the union to reach the goals of the Kyoto protocol. It is, however, clear that the goals for the year 2010, as presented in the directive and the Kyoto protocol, will not be reached unless the use of renewable energy sources sees a drastic increase.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-7765 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Hesselgren, Anna |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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