Mitygacja i adaptacja – dynamika zmian i kontynuacja w systemie prawa ochrony środowiska
Mitigation and adaptation – dynamics of changes and continuation in the environmental law system

Summary/Abstract: The legal system’s response to the climate crisis is based on two main courses of action (measures)i.e. mitigation and adaptation. The term climate mitigation can be understood broadly andrefers to the totality of measures that aim to reduce anthropogenic emissions of greenhousegases and increase their uptake by sinks. The term “adaptation”, although now widely used in theclimate change agenda, does not have a uniform definition. The complexity of climate changeadaptation concepts and terminology is due to a great many factors – the diversity of adaptationneeds or the diversity of adaptation options and methods, which translates into a mosaic ofpossible adaptation solutions.From the perspective of environmental policy and law as an object of the legislator’s intervention(its sources, dynamics of development, openness and characteristics), mitigation andadaptation are a clear example of the inclusiveness of environmental policy and law, and theirinterface with other policies and objects of the legislator’s intervention. Because mitigation andadaptation focus, as if through a lens, the need for inclusiveness and the cross-cutting natureof climate neutrality as an objective of EU Member State environmental policy. The integrativedimension of mitigation and adaptation (both in its external and internal aspects), justifyingcomprehensive and coherent action in different areas, is not only a manifestation of the continuationof the phenomenon of integrability and specialisation in the field of environmental law.The cross-cutting and diverse nature of the primarily adaptation activities undertaken atvarious levels and sectors and the diversity of measures implementing adaptation using variousinstruments and forms of action (including legal instruments) does not justify their exclusionfrom the category of environmental protection (law) instruments. It does, however, justify thequestion whether in the context of the nature of adaptation measures (instruments) and thenotion of environmental protection understood as undertaking or abandonment of measuresenabling, preserving or restoring natural equilibrium, which consist in particular in the rationalshaping of the environment and the management of environmental resources in accordancewith the principle of sustainable development, the prevention of pollution and the restorationof natural elements to their proper state, it would not be appropriate to use the notion of instrumentsof “(law) of sustainable development”, which, it seems, would better reflect the essenceof the matter.

• Details
• Contents