Environmental Law Protecting Planetary and Ecological Boundaries

In 2025, 7 of 9 planetary boundaries were crossed. The same is true for boundaries of many regional and local ecosystems. The ecological footprint of the EU is twice its biocapacity. Keeping within our share of the planetary boundaries and respecting the safe operation spaces of other ecological boundaries is, however, a prerequisite for ensuring a liveable future in Europe in the long term. The central questions of this farewell speech from Utrecht University are: Do EU and Dutch environmental law sufficiently protect planetary and other ecological boundaries? Do we have the legal means to turn the tide and dramatically decrease our ecological footprint and our resource consumption? If not, how can EU and Dutch environmental law be improved?

On the basis of a critical analysis of EU and national (here mainly Dutch) environmental law, the author proposes to integrate the obligation to keep within planetary boundaries into the TEU and TFEU, as well as into national constitutional and environmental law. He also suggests adding additional legal instruments such as pollution budgets for individual emitters deduced from the ‘safe operating space’ of ecological boundaries.