Winfried Huck, Jennifer Maaß, Saparya Sood, Tahar Benmaghnia, Alexander Schulte, Sarah Heß and Marc-Anthony Walter, The Right to Breathe Clean Air and Access to Justice – Legal State of Play in International, European and National Law (March 29, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808572 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3808572.
Despite the fact that “heavy skies” (gravioris caeli) have been identified and legally classified as a serious concern since ancient times, air pollution still leads to millions of avoidable deaths and significantly impacts the climate. Today more than ever, the protection of people and a biophysical interconnected environment is the subject of a global discussion on the right to breathe clean air (RBCA) in international, interregional and national law. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global normative concept through SDG 3.9 target the reduction of air pollution, related deaths, diseases and the effects on climate change as a global health risk. But what is the exact status of the RBCA and who can claim access to justice from it? This paper attempts to classify RBCA as an exertable right in the realm of public law in a pan-European context and to shed light on the possibilities of its implementation and enforcement, also in connection with climate justice. Its overall analysis reveals weakness in the enforcement of an RBCA on the international, European and national levels.