Cathrin Zengerling

• Professor
• University of Freiburg

Our agricultural landscapes are increasingly suffering from a lack of trees and shrubs, which are crucial as habitats and food sources for pollinating insects. Agroforestry systems, which strategically combine woody plants with agricultural use, offer a promising solution to this issue. Therefore, the INTEGRA project comprehensively investigated bo...

Agroforestry is an example of a social–ecological system that was once common across Europe, but has largely disappeared with the intensification of agriculture. Although agroforestry law has been shown to be an obstacle to the adoption of agroforestry by farmers, little is known about the implementation of agroforestry law at the local level and i...

Zusammenfassung Agroforstsysteme gelten als eine nachhaltige Landnutzungsoption und sollen vermehrt (wieder) etabliert werden. Trotz neuer förderrechtlicher Impulse hindert der aktuelle Rechtsrahmen den Ausbau von Agroforstsystemen. Der Beitrag nimmt die jüngsten Änderungen im Agrarförderrecht zum Anlass für eine detaillierte Bestandsaufnahme des k...

As the social and ecological costs of capital-driven housing markets become increasingly apparent, local governments are (re)establishing collaborations with housing organizations that prioritize affordability and sustainability over profits. This hesitant re-orientation, however, takes place under conditions of strained local budgets and the inscr...

In view of the multiple challenges faced by agriculture, agroforestry can promote multifunctional farming landscapes. While the law is a decisive factor for the adoption of agroforestry, it is not as yet comprehensively addressed in agroforestry and governance research. We operationalize Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework to analyze agri-...

A rising number of climate cases is brought against governments, administrations, and companies in support of enhanced climate action. This is the second of two articles that aim to scrutinise climate litigation as a social process and as a driver towards deep decarbonisation from the perspectives of law, social, and political sciences. Working tow...

Der schnelle Aufbau nachhaltiger Energiesysteme ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil für das Erreichen der Ziele des Übereinkommens von Paris. Er verringert damit letztlich auch die Häufigkeit und Intensität von Wetterextremen. Der Beitrag stellt wesentliche politische Ziele, rechtliche Steuerungsinstrumente und aktuelle Herausforderungen auf dem Weg z...

En France comme en Allemagne, l'implantation d'éoliennes interroge : quelle place occupe le paysage et comment est-il pris compte dans la mise en oeuvre de la transition énergétique ? Répondre à cette question impose d'analyser la problématique des parcs éoliens et de la protection des paysages, puis d'étudier la compensation en justice des atteint...

A growing number of court cases are being brought against governments, administrations, and corporations in support of enhanced climate action. This is the first of two articles that examine climate litigation as a social process and potential driver of deep decarbonisation from a perspective that combines legal, social, and political science. Cont...

In November 2022, the German government decided to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). After a long campaign to modernise the ECT, the EU now also prepares for an exit. In the political and legal discourse, the decision to withdraw is partly welcomed and partly criticised, interestingly in both cases with reference to a successful energy...

International climate politics have evolved substantially in the past decades and are no longer confined to international state negotiations and governmental action. Transnational initiatives are new forms of climate governance that cut across traditional state-based jurisdictions and operate across public and private divides (Bulkeley et al., 2014...

The European Union and Germany have recently committed themselves to greenhouse-gas neutrality by 2050 and 2045, respectively. This substantially reduces their gaps in ambition to the Paris climate goals. However, the current climate policy mix is not sufficient to reach these targets: There is a major implementation gap. Based on economic, legal,...

This article aims to contribute to the growing body of urban climate-governance research from a comparative legal perspective. It analyses the climate-related mitigation and adaptation efforts in the building sector of three cities: Cape Town (South Africa), Hamburg (Germany), and São Paulo (Brazil). We examine national, state, and local laws and p...

The demands of the climate movement – for rapid and profound change – are based on scientific findings and the political commitments to the Paris Agreement. The activists are, therefore, factually “right”. However, being right is not enough to justify or to accelerate the practical implementation of knowledge and decisions. We explain which social...

Urban real-world laboratories (RWLs) are increasingly used internationally and studied as an instrument of urban transformation. New cases in diverse political, economic, social and ecological situations offer a rich set of learning experiences, but the distinctive urban contexts make it impossible to draw comparisons in the traditional sense. In t...

In recent years, a growing body of research has explored the urban dimension of the critical resource phosphorus with a focus on urban metabolism analysis, recovery technologies and governance frameworks. However, there has been no tangible and holistic attempt at choosing between available measures and instruments for their implementation in the u...

International climate politics have substantially evolved in the past decades and are no longer confined to international negotiations and governmental action. Transnational initiatives refer to new forms of climate governance that cut across traditional state-based jurisdictions and operate across public and private divides. They encompass a wide...

UN climate governance, as we understand it here, comprises state-led cooperation within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the wider climate change regime complex. (1) Despite a poor historic track record, UN climate governance gained new momentum since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. The Paris Agreement is the...

This statement makes practical proposals to address serious environmental issues raised by the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement (EUMAA). The EUMAA fails to adequately address issues of climate change and environmental degradation, both in the EU and the Mercosur countries, which poses an unprecedented challenge for these regions. It thereby fails...

Der Tagungsband widmet sich vielfältigen rechtlichen Herausforderungen und Ansätzen für eine umweltgerechte und nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung. Die Schwerpunkte liegen dabei auf dem Feld des kommunalen Klimaschutzes sowie auf dem Verkehrssektor. So geht es neben den Handlungsfeldern, Rechtsinstrumenten und Perspektiven der Anpassung um kommunale und...

Die Expertise wurde als Teilprojekt des Hauptgutachtens 2020 (Klima und Landnutzung) des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats Globale Umweltveränderungen (WBGU) erstellt. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es, Potenziale und Blockadewirkungen des internationalen Handelsrechts für Klimaschutz und Entwicklung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung nachhaltiger Landnutzung z...

International legal and political mandates such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement increasingly emphasize and embrace the role of local governments and city networks in achieving global sustainability goals, e.g in SDG 11 and the NAZCA (non-state actor zone for climate action) platform. The question of how to grow urban su...

Der Beitrag untersucht die Einbindung von Städten in das polyzentrische Klimaregime. Er identifiziert Verantwortungsverbindungen („accountability chains“) in drei Perspektiven – vertikal in der Mehrebenengovernance, horizontal in Städtenetzwerken und intern in städtischer strategischer Klimaschutzplanung. Die instrumentelle und inhaltliche Ausgesta...

The Cluster of Excellence »Climate, Climatic Change, and Society« (CLICCS) establishes a long-term programme ranging from research on climate dynamics and climaterelated social dynamics to the transdisciplinary exploration of human–environment interactions. Through engaging expertise from a wide variety of academic disciplines of universities and r...

One of the most affected regions in Colombia in terms of social conflict, deforestation and loss of biodiversity is the region called Montes de Maria. In view of the current land restitution plan, the trend of the environmental degradation is most likely to increase due to a higher demand of natural resources caused by the returning population that...

Growing urban agglomerations turn cities into key actors with a polycentric yet cumulative response to the environmental threat. To explore the status quo of strategic urban (-centred) climate action planning, the kick-off workshop of the Urban Footprints Project focused on five of the project’s eight global case study cities. The report is a con...

Das „Gemeinschaftswerk“ Energiewende ist ins Stocken geraten. Angesichts der aktuellen Schwierigkeiten, insb. im Wärme- und Verkehrsbereich, wird zunehmend auf die Notwendigkeit einer sog. Sektorkopplung verwiesen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellen wir eine soziologische Perspektive auf die Energiewende vor und zeigen, dass die Wahl politischer Maßnah...

The article aims to provide an initial insight into if and how urban metabolism perspectives and approaches may strengthen accountability in urban environmental strategic planning. It argues that many of the challenges in governing urban environmental flows successfully result from accountability gaps in strategic planning. The aim of the research...

The article explores emerging patterns of accountability in German and Chinese low-carbon urban development. It draws on multi-level vertical and horizontal governance perspectives and identifies the current status of institutional innovations in order to steer action on climate change mitigation in urban environments. To underpin the relevance of...

Mit dem neuen Mieterstromgesetz verfolgt der Bundesgesetzgeber zwei wesentliche Ziele: Zum einen sollen neben Hauseigentümern nun auch Mieter von der Solarstromförderung profitieren. Zum anderen soll die Zahl der Solaranlagen auf Wohngebäuden deutlich steigen. Der Artikel geht der Frage nach, ob und inwieweit die konkrete Ausgestaltung des am 24. J...

Das Projekt e-Quartier Hamburg erforscht, wie Elektromobilität verstärkt in urbane Wohnquartiere integriert werden kann. Im öffentlichen Raum entstehen zunehmend Ladesäulen auf weitgehend gesicherter Rechtsgrundlage. Das Gutachten fokussiert auf den privaten Raum. Es geht der Frage nach, wie die Zahl der Stellplätze mit Ladeinfrastruktur auf privat...

Eine besondere Herausforderung auf dem Weg zu einer klimaneutralen Gesellschaft ist der Umbau des Verkehrssektors. Im Gegensatz zu anderen energieverbrauchenden Sektoren konnten hier bisher kaum Fortschritte erzielt werden. Städte und Gemeinden steuern durch ihre Planungsentscheidungen die Entwicklung des Verkehrssektors entscheidend mit. Neben ein...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, i...

Nach einer Demonstration mit dem Greenpeace-Schiff "Arctic Sunrise" an der Ölplattform "Priraslomnaja" in der Petschorasee wurden im September 2013 28 Greenpeace-Aktivisten sowie zwei Journalisten in Murmansk inhaftiert. Die russische Staatsanwaltschaft warf den "Arctic 30" Piraterie und Rowdytum vor. Auf Antrag der Niederlande, dem Flaggenstaat de...

Greening International Jurisprudence: Environmental NGOs before International Courts, Tribunals, and Compliance Committees examines how international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies enforce international environmental law, with particular consideration to the role of environmental NGOs. The analytical structure of the study is based on four asp...

The second meeting of the Task Force on access to justice under the Aarhus Convention took place on 10-12 September 2007 in Geneva. The Task Force was established by the Parties to the Convention at their second meeting in May 2005 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with the aim of addressing some of the practical issues and obstacles that occur in implementat...