Speech at the Fourth Digital Day: Environmental Law and the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem
-Nexus

This year´s global webinar “The Fourth Digital Day” is dedicated to the WEFE Nexus. The acronym stands for the words Water, Energy, Food, and Ecosystem. It is an honour to be invited to address such a prestigious audience on this extremely important and topical theme – a theme which is inextricably linked to the fate of humankind. Being a former professor of environmental law, I had no difficulty in choosing my approach to today´s overarching topic: it is of course the framework based on environmental law. In a nutshell, environmental law plays a crucial role in addressing the complex interrelationship between water, energy, food and ecosystems, the so-called nexus approach. Given my present position, I will conclude my presentation with some thoughts on the role of the courts, too.

Coming from Finland, a country of thousands of lakes and rich groundwater resources, where even toilets are flushed with drinkable water, I will pay special attention to water. And I do not mean what the Scottish call water of life, nor do I refer to the Scandinavian spirit Akvavit (derived from Latin expression aqua vitae), but real fresh water. Another rather obvious emphasis in my presentation today is placed on the fight against climate change, which also has its effects on water-related issues.

There are myriad definitions and classifications of environmental law. In the widest sense, environmental law includes all legal mechanisms and provisions concerning the relationship of humans to nature and the environment. Environmental law can, e.g., be divided into environmental planning law, pollution control law, natural resources law, and nature protection law. The perspective varies from international (such as international agreements tackling climate change and the protection of biodiversity), and regional (such as the European Union), to national and local. A media-based division may include, for instance, water law and air pollution control law. Evolving climate law as a topical field covers large parts of environmental law even in the widest sense, but also norm systems that are not frequently understood as parts of traditional environmental law, say regulation of air traffic.

For today´s agenda it suffices to say that environmental law is there to regulate, both internationally and nationally, the use of natural resources in a sustainable, long-term manner. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability. The SDGs address, with the view of WEFE Nexus, i.a., poverty, hunger, health, clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, clean energy, climate action, biodiversity, forests, and desertification.

Specifically, the WEFE Nexus manifests itself in the effects of climate change. Climate change is threatening food security, damaging ecosystems, calling for profound changes in the energy production systems, and causing water shortages, just to mention the most obvious consequences regarding the Nexus.

Climate change is here. As climate change is a truly global problem and the toughest of challenges facing humanity, it goes without saying that it can be tackled and mitigated only through international co-operation. And because tackling climate change cannot be based on measures targeting industrial point-sources alone, but also needs to address all kinds of individual human consumption activities, the prevention measures must be all-encompassing, profoundly affecting our way of life.

Climate change, which typically appears in the form of extreme weather conditions, affects all the pillars of food security. Crops will get smaller or will, in the worst case, even be lost altogether because of drought or flooding, and the stability of the global food system will weaken. Climate change is already impacting agriculture in many parts of the Globe, such as in Spain and Australia. If the functions of ecosystems are not duly cared for, the system will fail, causing wide-spread famine and, as an inevitable consequence of this, large scale migration.

The role of water in the Nexus is of primary importance. In the European Union, the Water Policy Framework Directive (2000) represents an integrated approach to regulate both issues related to quantitative and qualitative dimensions of waters. Waters as such create ecosystems which enable, e.g., aquaculture. If the water gets polluted, running an aquaculture business is blocked or impeded. Water also enables creating fossil-free energy, and, it is, as well, used in the cooling of, e.g., nuclear power plants. And, as mentioned above, water may affect food security on the one hand through shortage of irrigation water (droughts) and by destroying crops (flooding) on the other. Concerning food security, the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition present a wide range of recommendations to promote policy coherence and reduce policy fragmentation between relevant sectors - health, agriculture, education, environment, gender, social protection, trade, and employment - all of which impact food systems and nutrition. They aim to support the development of co-ordinated, multi-sectoral national policies, laws, programmes, and investment plans to enable safe and healthy diets through sustainable food systems.

In combatting and mitigating climate change, the restructuring of the energy system is imperative. Fossil fuels must be phased out. Small glimpses of hope appeared at the Dubai COP meeting in December 2023. Europe, after the brutal Russian aggression in Ukraine, has been able to diminish its dependence on Russian fossil energy. With the help of wind, solar, and wave energy the green transition will be boosted. Power to X solutions, based on green hydrogen, create hope for the future, even if production of green energy also has its negative side-effects on the environment and biodiversity. Advanced carbon capturing techniques will also help in limiting the increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

It would be of utmost significance to be able to master this multifaceted totality with the instruments of environmental law. All the different types of instruments at our disposal should be applied in a coordinated manner: environmental planning, Environmental Impact Assessments, legal-administrative preventive control mechanisms, such as permit systems, and direct bans and other regulations concerning standards of performance, economic instruments, such as incentives, standardization, etc. Every single instrument is necessary in tackling the phenomenon: all measures are needed but the choice between different instruments in the restricting of global warming should take place in a coordinated manner by the global community. Partial optimization may happen unless a comprehensive, integrated approach is used.

However, a complicated network of effects and side effects will be weaved between different instruments of abating climate change, on the one hand, and the sustainable use of natural resources and environmental protection, on the other. Environmental law should be the vehicle to regulate this vulnerable equilibrium. Just a couple of trivial examples. Hydropower plants create fossil free energy but have a huge impact on the watercourse with its ecosystems, for example preventing salmon run, potentially even affecting the possibility to grow crops. Windmills producing green energy can cause disturbances to human habitations, kill birds, and affect passageways of animals, including large predators and reindeer, which may, in turn, affect the Sami peoples´ cultural traditions in Finnish Lapland. The same is true with mining, which is an essential requirement in order to gain minerals (so-called rare earth elements, REEs) needed for the green transition, for instance in wind power plants.

Ultimately, the responsibility for adopting the most effective set of instruments and defining the targets and obligations rests with the legislator and other political decision-makers. Their task, and responsibility, is to guide the paths of societal development in each country and in international cooperation. Environmental law experts have a supporting role in analyzing different instruments, their advantages and shortcomings, and coordinated effects on climate and the environment.

Courts, for their part, guided by domestic legislation and international agreements, are there to guarantee that decisions made are lawful. In a sustainable system governed by the rule of law, judges implement existing legislation in concrete court cases, but they are also responsible for guaranteeing that fundamental rights and human rights of present and future generations prevail. Ultimately, the courts must ensure that the projected measures established by law and administrative decisions are adequate to tackle climate change and loss of biodiversity, which are the most pressing challenges of our time.