The fos­sil age, which long ago began with the inven­ti­on of the coal-fired steam engi­ne, is coming to an end with the decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on of indus­tri­al pro­ces­ses alre­a­dy under­way. Achie­ving the cen­tral cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion goal – „net zero emis­si­ons“ – requi­res what is argu­ab­ly the most ambi­tious eco­no­mic moder­ni­sa­ti­on pro­cess sin­ce the indus­tri­al revo­lu­ti­on. The trans­for­ma­ti­on into a cli­ma­te-com­pa­ti­ble, sus­tainable low-emis­si­on eco­no­my can only suc­ceed through sub­stan­ti­al invest­ment, fun­da­men­tal inno­va­ti­on, and entre­pre­neu­ri­al stra­te­gic foresight.

Ein wich­ti­ger Bau­stein die­ses indus­tri­el­len Wan­dels ist die Ver­wirk­li­chung eines pri­mär kreis­lauf­ori­en­tier­ten Wirt­schafts­sys­tems. Nach Berech­nun­gen der Ellen Mac­Ar­thur Foun­da­ti­on hat die Cir­cu­lar Eco­no­my das Poten­zi­al, den Aus­stoß von Treib­haus­ga­sen in den zen­tra­len Indus­trie­sek­to­ren um 45 Pro­zent zu sen­ken. Dabei geht es um wesent­lich mehr als um die klas­si­sche Kreis­lauf­wirt­schaft mit ihrem pri­mär auf die Abfall­pha­se von Pro­duk­ten bezo­ge­nen Ansatz. Eine umfas­sen­de Cir­cu­lar Eco­no­my basiert auf einem lebens­zy­klus­über­grei­fen­den Ansatz geschlos­se­ner Pro­duk­ti­ons­kreis­läu­fe und erfor­dert ein grund­le­gend neu­es Design von Pro­duk­ten und Produktionsprozessen.

For years, we have been advi­sing cli­ents across indus­tries and sec­tors on all legal issues rela­ted to the rea­li­sa­ti­on of decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on and cir­cu­lar eco­no­my. We actively shape the legal frame­work and sup­port our cli­ents from a wide ran­ge of indus­tries in mee­ting the diver­se chal­lenges of indus­tri­al change.

The importance of cir­cu­lar eco­no­my is gro­wing, also becau­se it has the poten­ti­al to signi­fi­cant­ly redu­ce CO2 emis­si­ons. Cir­cu­lar eco­no­my is thus one of the key sec­tors on the way to the neces­sa­ry decou­pling of growth from resour­ce con­sump­ti­on. Howe­ver, the cur­rent legal frame­work does not yet take suf­fi­ci­ent account of this fin­ding; on the con­tra­ry, it hin­ders the deve­lo­p­ment of cir­cu­lar eco­no­my in many places and sets wrong priorities.

Howe­ver, a rethink is emer­ging here: The cli­ma­te poli­cy pro­fi­le of cir­cu­lar eco­no­my has recent­ly been cle­ar­ly shar­pe­ned in poli­ti­cal pro­gram­mes such as the Euro­pean Green Deal, the Euro­pean Cir­cu­lar Eco­no­my Action Plan and the Coali­ti­on Agree­ment 2021 – 2025. If poli­cy­ma­kers fol­low up the­se pro­gram­me prin­ci­ples with action, the cir­cu­lar eco­no­my, which for reasons of health and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion must be accom­pa­nied, at least until sys­tem per­fec­tion, by the reduc­tion of pol­lut­ants, such as through the inci­ne­ra­ti­on and land­fil­ling of pre-trea­ted was­te, is about to recei­ve a huge boost. We are loo­king for­ward to accom­pany­ing the indus­try, in which we are deep­ly roo­ted, in this development.

Indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial faci­li­ties must be adapt­ed to pro­gres­si­ve and dyna­mic envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards at regu­lar inter­vals. One exam­p­le of this is the new “TA Luft 2021” (Tech­ni­cal Ins­truc­tions on Air Qua­li­ty Con­trol 2021), which, among other things, imple­ments a num­ber of Euro­pean requi­re­ments – in par­ti­cu­lar the BAT con­clu­si­ons. Plant ope­ra­tors con­ti­nue to invest in was­te gas puri­fi­ca­ti­on and emis­si­on reduc­tion tech­no­lo­gies, deve­lop decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on stra­te­gies and imple­ment them. Plant-rela­ted adapt­a­ti­on requi­re­ments can also result from chan­ges in mar­ket and cus­to­mer requi­re­ments. A key com­pe­ti­ti­ve fac­tor for the suc­cess of indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial plant ope­ra­tors today lies in the effi­ci­en­cy of immis­si­on con­trol licen­sing procedures.

In der anwalt­li­chen Bera­tung set­zen wir neben fach­li­cher Exzel­lenz auf unser Ver­ständ­nis für betrieb­lich-tech­ni­sche Zusam­men­hän­ge, kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­ves Fin­ger­spit­zen­ge­fühl, stra­te­gi­sches Ver­fah­rens­ma­nage­ment und Durch­set­zungs­stär­ke. Wir ver­fü­gen über lang­jäh­ri­ge Erfah­run­gen in nahe­zu allen Indus­trie­zwei­gen und kön­nen bei Bedarf auf ein brei­tes Netz­werk aus Inge­nieur­bü­ros, Ver­bän­den und sons­ti­gen Ver­ei­ni­gun­gen zurück­grei­fen. Das ermög­licht uns eine effek­ti­ve Bera­tung von der Kon­zep­ti­on der Anla­ge bis hin zu ihrer Rea­li­sie­rung und dem lau­fen­den Betrieb.

The switch to elec­tri­ci­ty and heat from rene­wa­ble ener­gies requi­res fur­ther – also decen­tra­li­sed – expan­si­on of wind, solar and bio­en­er­gy pro­jects. We sup­port com­pa­nies and the public sec­tor in the rea­li­sa­ti­on of pro­jects for the expan­si­on of rene­wa­ble ener­gies. Our exper­ti­se covers all legal aspects to be dealt with in the rele­vant plan­ning and licen­sing pro­ce­du­res. We are fami­li­ar with the rele­vant issues and chal­lenges of such projects.

We also advo­ca­te instru­ments for the urgen­tly nee­ded acce­le­ra­ti­on of plan­ning and licen­sing. In this con­text, we sup­port, for exam­p­le, uni­form nati­on­wi­de assess­ment methods – for exam­p­le, in the assess­ment of the pro­tec­tion of spe­ci­es in con­nec­tion with wind ener­gy and grid expan­si­on projects.

Ener­gy-inten­si­ve indus­tries in par­ti­cu­lar have been inves­t­ing in inno­va­ti­ve pro­ces­ses for years in order to lar­ge­ly and per­ma­nent­ly redu­ce pro­cess-rela­ted green­house gas emis­si­ons that can­not be avo­ided or can only be avo­ided with dif­fi­cul­ty under the cur­rent sta­te of the art. Hydro­gen can beco­me a key tech­no­lo­gy here. We sup­port and assist com­pa­nies in this trans­for­ma­ti­on – espe­ci­al­ly with regard to the various fields of appli­ca­ti­on of hydro­gen and its infra­struc­tu­ral connection.

Die Ener­gie- und Ver­kehrs­in­fra­struk­tur in Deutsch­land befin­det sich in einem gewal­ti­gen Moder­ni­sie­rungs­pro­zess mit erheb­li­chem Inves­ti­ti­ons­be­darf. Auf dem Weg zu einer CO2-neu­tra­len Wirt­schaft gilt es, Schie­nen­we­ge zu moder­ni­sie­ren, Häfen und Was­ser­stra­ßen aus­zu­bau­en und leis­tungs­fä­hi­ge Strom­lei­tun­gen zu errich­ten. Die poli­ti­schen Aus­bau­zie­le für der­ar­ti­ge raum­be­an­spru­chen­de Infra­struk­tur­vor­ha­ben sind mit einer Viel­zahl von Umwelt­schutz­stan­dards in Ein­klang zu brin­gen; sie ste­hen zudem im beson­de­ren Fokus der Öffent­lich­keit. In Raum­ord­nungs- und Plan­fest­stel­lungs­ver­fah­ren sowie in sons­ti­gen Zulas­sungs­ver­fah­ren grei­fen natur­wis­sen­schaft­li­che und juris­ti­sche Fach­fra­gen ineinander.

Gefor­dert ist die Abar­bei­tung fach­recht­li­cher Details bei gleich­zei­tig kon­se­quen­tem Blick auf das Gesamt­pro­jekt. Auf­grund unse­rer umfas­sen­den Exper­ti­se in sämt­li­chen Teil­ge­bie­ten des Umwelt- und Pla­nungs­rechts, unse­rer lang­jäh­ri­gen, prak­ti­schen Erfah­rung im Umgang mit Zulas­sungs­be­hör­den, Fach­gut­ach­tern und der Öffent­lich­keit sowie unse­rer Team­stär­ke ver­fü­gen wir über die erfor­der­li­chen Kom­pe­ten­zen, um unse­re Man­dan­ten bei der Rea­li­sie­rung ihrer Vor­ha­ben erfolg­reich zu unterstützen.

Water and was­te­wa­ter law, inclu­ding the law on admi­nis­tra­ti­ve fees, has tra­di­tio­nal­ly been one of our main are­as of exper­ti­se. In addi­ti­on to clas­si­cal pro­blems in this area, issues of water manage­ment, water with­dra­wal, prio­ri­ti­sa­ti­on of use, water reu­se, pro­tec­tion against hea­vy rain­fall and floods, and the expan­si­on and recon­s­truc­tion of water manage­ment infra­struc­tures have once again beco­me the focus of our legal prac­ti­ce – not least due to the con­se­quen­ces of cli­ma­te chan­ge. In addi­ti­on, we deal with the imple­men­ta­ti­on of the objec­ti­ves of the Water Frame­work Direc­ti­ve, the indi­vi­du­al design of manage­ment plans, licen­ces under water law and plant-rela­ted water protection.

Plant pro­tec­tion pro­ducts and fer­ti­li­sers make an important con­tri­bu­ti­on to plant health and crop pro­duc­tion. The requi­re­ments for the­se pro­ducts are har­mo­nis­ed within the Euro­pean Uni­on. They ensu­re a uni­form and high level of pro­tec­tion for human and ani­mal health and the envi­ron­ment; in addi­ti­on, they ensu­re the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of agriculture.

We advi­se com­pa­nies in the crop pro­tec­tion and fer­ti­li­ser indus­tries on all regu­la­to­ry issues as well as on the draf­ting of contracts.

Our well-estab­lished team of public pro­cu­re­ment law experts atta­ches gre­at importance to the hig­hest qua­li­ty and com­pre­hen­si­ve sup­port in all types of pro­cu­re­ment pro­ce­du­res as well as time-cri­ti­cal pro­cu­re­ment pro­jects. We advi­se com­pa­nies on their par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in public pro­cu­re­ment pro­ce­du­res and the awar­ding bodies on the struc­tu­ring and imple­men­ta­ti­on of such pro­ce­du­res. Among other things, new legal requi­re­ments – such as tho­se rela­ting to sus­tainable and inno­va­ti­ve pro­cu­re­ment – must be taken into account. We have many years of expe­ri­ence and in-depth indus­try know­ledge, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the are­as of was­te manage­ment and dis­po­sal, envi­ron­ment, trans­port, health­ca­re, con­s­truc­tion, infra­struc­tu­re and archi­tec­tu­re. Pro­cu­re­ment law is not an island for us: Whe­re neces­sa­ry for suc­cess, we work clo­se­ly with our envi­ron­men­tal, muni­ci­pal and cor­po­ra­te lawy­ers, your tax lawy­ers and tech­ni­cal consultants.

Staat­li­che Zuwen­dun­gen kön­nen meist nur unter regu­la­ti­ven Neben­be­stim­mun­gen gewährt wer­den. Bei der Aus­ge­stal­tung und Gewäh­rung öffent­li­cher Zuschüs­se, Kre­di­te und Garan­tien gilt es, viel­fäl­ti­ge natio­na­le wie auch gemein­schafts­recht­li­che Rah­men­be­din­gun­gen zu berück­sich­ti­gen. Wir bera­ten sowohl Zuwen­dungs- und För­der­mit­tel­ge­ber als auch pri­va­te und öffent­li­che Unter­neh­men in der Rol­le des Zuwen­dungs­emp­fän­gers. Lang­jäh­ri­ge bei­hil­fe­recht­li­che Erfah­rung, tief­grei­fen­de Bran­chen­kennt­nis in den Berei­chen Ent­sor­gung, Umwelt, Ver­kehr, Bau und Infra­struk­tur zeich­nen uns aus. Ob Inves­ti­ti­ons- und Erwei­te­rungs­maß­nah­men, Denk­mal­schutz- und Erschlie­ßungs­pro­jek­te, Moder­ni­sie­rung, Pri­va­ti­sie­rung und ÖPP oder Kri­sen­bei­hil­fen und Wett­be­werbs­fra­gen – wir lot­sen Sie durch die Klip­pen des För­der­mit­tel- und Beihilferechts.

We advi­se on the draf­ting of artic­les of asso­cia­ti­on, res­truc­tu­ring, cor­po­ra­te tran­sac­tions as well as on stra­te­gic issues of cor­po­ra­te manage­ment. In addi­ti­on to out­stan­ding legal exper­ti­se, this requi­res entre­pre­neu­ri­al under­stan­ding, fore­sight in anti­ci­pa­ting pro­blems and crea­ti­vi­ty in deve­lo­ping the best pos­si­ble solutions.

We also have par­ti­cu­lar exper­ti­se in draf­ting con­tracts at the inter­face with envi­ron­men­tal law. Envi­ron­men­tal law requi­re­ments must often be imple­men­ted by the mar­ket play­ers con­cer­ned through civil law con­tracts. The task of draf­ting such con­tracts in a legal­ly secu­re and prac­ti­ca­ble man­ner requi­res not only spe­cial legal exper­ti­se in civil and envi­ron­men­tal law, but also in-depth indus­try know­ledge and the abili­ty to deve­lop inno­va­ti­ve solu­ti­ons. In our law firm, such con­tracts are draf­ted and for­mu­la­ted in clo­se coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween con­tract lawy­ers and envi­ron­men­tal lawyers.

We advi­se and repre­sent you in cor­po­ra­te law dis­pu­tes and deve­lop liti­ga­ti­on stra­te­gies as well as stra­te­gies for out-of-court sett­le­ment of such conflicts.

We advi­se and repre­sent you in asser­ting or defen­ding civil lia­bi­li­ty claims as well as in sta­te lia­bi­li­ty cases invol­ving envi­ron­men­tal law that are brought befo­re the civil courts. In doing so, we com­bi­ne our out­stan­ding com­pe­tence in envi­ron­men­tal law with out­stan­ding expert know­ledge in civil litigation.

We advi­se and repre­sent com­pa­nies in the defence of cli­ma­te lawsuits in which injunc­ti­ve reli­ef is sought and/or lia­bi­li­ty claims are asser­ted against com­pa­nies under aspects of cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion law.

We advi­se in the con­text of com­pli­ance and due dili­gence audits. We iden­ti­fy envi­ron­men­tal risks, assess them legal­ly and deve­lop prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons. Our excep­tio­nal spe­cia­li­sa­ti­on and many years of expe­ri­ence in envi­ron­men­tal law, which is not limi­t­ed to tran­sac­tion­al busi­ness, as well as our broad and resi­li­ent net­work, give our cli­ents the decisi­ve edge.

Unser Bera­tungs­an­ge­bot umfasst die Ent­wick­lung und Imple­men­tie­rung unter­neh­mens­spe­zi­fi­scher Com­pli­ance-Sys­te­me sowie deren Über­prü­fung und Optimierung.

Dar­über hin­aus ver­fü­gen wir über lang­jäh­ri­ge Erfah­rung bei der Beglei­tung von Unter­neh­men in umwelt­re­le­van­ten Kri­sen­si­tua­tio­nen. Wir sind schnell hand­lungs­fä­hig, bera­ten zu den ein­zu­lei­ten­den Sofort­maß­nah­men sowie der rich­ti­gen Kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­on mit Umwelt­be­hör­den, Staats­an­wäl­ten, Medi­en und Stake­hol­dern. Schließ­lich erar­bei­ten wir Stra­te­gien zur nach­hal­ti­gen Lösung der bestehen­den Pro­ble­me und set­zen die­se gemein­sam mit unse­ren Man­dan­ten um.