On 2 September 2026 at 10:00 Mirjam Vili will defend her doctoral thesis “National emission ceilings under the NEC Directive as a legal basis for limiting pollutant emissions from stationary sources”.
Supervisors:
Associate Professor Ivo Pilving, University of Tartu
Associate Professor Hannes Veinla †, University of Tartu
Opponents:
Professor Gerd Winter, University of Bremen
PhD Mait Laaring
Summary
In the context of climate change, it is widely known that states are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What is less widely recognised, however, is that similar principles also apply to air pollution. Certain pollutants are subject to national emission ceilings, for which states are responsible. These obligations arise from European Union and international law, and their purpose is to protect both human health and the environment. These pollutants are released into the air from a wide range of sources, including industry, the energy sector, agriculture and transport. For this reason, it is not sufficient to regulate individual sources in isolation – the State must consider the overall picture. This requires a regulatory framework that ensures a reduction in emissions across all sources combined. One important category of emission sources is stationary sources, such as factories and large industrial installations. In Estonia, the following rule applies: if permitting a new activity would lead to the exceedance of the national total emission ceiling, the environmental permit must be refused. While this approach helps to ensure that the State complies with its obligations, it also makes the system rather rigid, as it does not always allow for consideration of the specific circumstances of individual cases. As an alternative, it is possible to establish a separate aggregate emission ceiling for stationary sources and allocate the permitted emissions among them. Such an approach can ensure more effectively that emission reduction targets are met. At the same time, it is complex to implement, as it requires the fair and efficient allocation of a limited resource between the State and operators. A third option is to treat the exceedance of national emission ceilings as an environmental threat. This allows for a more flexible approach, in which each case can be assessed individually. Although environmental threats should generally be avoided, in certain situations such activities may still be permitted where there is an overriding public interest, no reasonable alternative exists, and appropriate measures have been taken to reduce environmental harm.
