Litigating the Fit for 55 Package: Statutory and rights-based challenges to national energy and climate plans as a means of implementing and/or enhancing the ambition of the EU's Fit for 55 Package

Date of Publication: January 2025

Despite the growing recognition of climate change's impact on human rights, it is not clear that the Fit for 55 Package has been informed by human rights. This prompts questions as to whether human rights arguments might therefore be used in the next wave of EU level climate litigation. This article draws together different threads in climate litigation—‘framework’ cases, the human rights turn, and climate plan-based challenges—to explore how the EU's procedural governance mechanisms together with fundamental rights could be used to ensure implementation of, or to enhance the ambition of, the EU's Fit for 55 Package. Specifically, the article examines how litigation relating to National Energy and Climate Plans could be used to ensure policies and measures are implemented to meet existing targets or to push for greater ambition in the EU's Fit for 55 Package.