Green Transition Laws of the European Union: A New International Legal Tool to Sustain Global Economic Inequality and Developmental Injustice?

Authors : Onur Uraz

Pages : 407-440

Doi:10.32450/aacd.1630147

View : 129 | Download : 585

Publication Date : 2025-12-05

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study examines the European Union’s Green Deal as an international legal instrument, analysing its potential hegemonic impact on developing and underdeveloped countries. While the Green Deal aims to promote environmental sustainability, its extraterritorial effects raise concerns about justice and the perpetuation of historical and economic inequalities. Framed within critical legal and postcolonial perspectives, the analysis highlights how the Green Deal’s ambitious standards and regulatory frameworks impose disproportionate burdens on countries with limited institutional and financial capacities, perpetuating ‘climate colonialism’. The EU’s reliance on resource extraction from vulnerable regions underscores persistent global inequalities, while initiatives like the Common Ground Taxonomy demonstrate how environmental policies can reinforce economic dominance and marginalise smaller states. Despite its sustainability goals, the Green Deal risks exacerbating developmental injustices by privileging the interests of industrialised economies over equitable global cooperation. The study advocates for reforming the Green Deal through an equity-focused lens, emphasising financial and technological support, reparative mechanisms for historical injustices, and inclusive compliance timelines. By addressing these structural inequalities, the EU can transform its Green Deal into a fair and collaborative model of sustainability. Failure to adopt such reforms risks reducing it to a tool of economic hegemony rather than a framework for collective environmental progress.
Keywords : Avrupa Birliği Yeşil Mutabakatı, Uluslararası Hukuk, Eleştirel Hukuk Çalışmaları, Takosonomi, Yeşil Dönüşüm

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