NETHERLANDS

• The target was statutory, meaning it had been set in law in the Emissions Reduction Targets Act of 2019.
• Scotland is still subject to the 2030 carbon target for the UK as a whole.
• The consistent implementation of the existing targets, in other words, is the difference between meeting the Paris objectives and condemning the planet to dangerous climate change.

Legally (but not literally) binding

• In 2017, Sweden was the first major economy to enact a statutory net zero target.
• Its net zero target is complemented by a series of intermediate steps: five-yearly carbon budgets, which are also legally binding.
• Legal scholars have long known that, even though the targets are legally binding, they would be difficult to enforce against an unwilling government.

Governments in the dock

• The plaintiff was the environmental law charity ClientEarth, which remains dissatisfied with the strategy and returned to court in February 2024.
• If successful, such a move would be the latest in a series of court cases in which judges have ordered governments to scale up their climate ambitions.

• The political embarrassment of missing a statutory target, or being subject to a court case, can focus the mind.
• A review of the UK Climate Change Act found that civil servants were petrified about the threat of a judicial review.
• Scotland’s decision to abandon its 2030 climate ambition is the most brazen violation of a statutory climate target yet.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.
Sam Fankhauser receives funding from the University of Oxford's Strategic Research Fund for Oxford Net Zero and the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN).

Orphan designation: Sodium (4-{(E)-3-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-[4-(3-morpholin-4-yl-prop1ynyl)phenyl]allyloxy}-2-methylphenoxy)acetate Treatment of long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency, 21/08/2020 Withdrawn

Orphan designation: anti-CD3 mAb (SPV-T3a)-ricin A chain fusion protein,anti-CD7 mAb (WT1)-ricin A chain fusion protein Treatment of graft-versus-host disease, 26/08/2005 Positive

• Date
  - Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 10:00 (CET) - 17:00 (CET)
  Location
  - European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  Event summary
  The European Medicines Agency has a coordinating role in the EU pharmacovigilance system and operates services and processes to support veterinary pharmacovigilance activities.
• This entails surveillance of adverse events, including lack of expected efficacy reported after veterinary medicinal products are used in practice, to safeguard animal and public health and the environment.
• The Agency is hosting a Focus group meeting for veterinarians or other healthcare professionals on facilitating pharmacovigilance reporting of medicinal products used in aquaculture.
• Registration
  Attendance is by invitation only.