Who Has the Right to a Future: Fundamental Rights and Climate Justice in the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act and Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas

At the same time as judicial recognition of environmental human rights increases across the globe, responses to climate change create new human rights impacts. As with climate change impacts, the disadvantages and advantages of climate action are unevenly distributed among the global population. Focusing on the EU context, this research applies a climate justice framework in order to assess whose rights and futures are protected by the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act and Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas.

Applying a climate justice framework based on corrective and recognition approaches, this research assesses the extent to which different voices and temporal, spatial and epistemic perspectives are recognised under the Critical Raw Materials Act and Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas. The analytical framework asks:

• Voice: What are the opportunities for public participation and access to justice
• Time: Which timeframes are recognised as deserving protection and redress
• Space: How are the spatial dimensions of climate justice acknowledged and regulated
• Knowledge: Which forms of knowledge are considered legitimate and authoritative

This research first doctrinally analyses the extent to which the Critical Raw Materials Act and Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas grant ‘voice’ through public participation and access to justice mechanisms, including environmental fundamental rights. It then assesses the temporal, spatial and epistemological dimensions of the relevant legislation to determine how misrecognition and a lack of corrective justice may exclude certain groups and individuals from being able to protect their rights and futures.