Stephan Sina

Stephan Sina

Rechtsanwalt (Lawyer)

Senior Fellow
Coordinating In-house Counsel

Team
Topics

Dr. Stephan Sina is a Senior Fellow at Ecologic Legal and the Coordinating In-house Counsel of Ecologic Institute. He is an experienced project leader working at all levels of environmental law and policy (national, EU, and international). His main areas of expertise are climate legislation, energy law, environmental compliance with a focus on criminal law, and resource governance. Stephan Sina is admitted as a lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) and certified as a specialist in administrative law. A native speaker of German, he also works in English and French.

In the field of climate legislation, Stephan Sina has supported the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) as well as the Environment ministries of Baden-Württemberg and Berlin in the development of framework laws on climate change (Bundes-Klimaschutzgesetz, Klimaschutzgesetz Baden-Württemberg, Energiewendegesetz Berlin). He is currently supporting the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate (BMWK) in the implementation of EU climate law and the further development of German climate law, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change. Stephan Sina also participated as an expert in hearings of the Bavarian and the Hessian State Parliaments on the respective states´ climate laws. He is the author of sections 11-12 and 14 of the Federal Climate Change Act (KSG) in an online commentary on climate change law (BeckOK Klimaschutzrecht). Furthermore, Stephan Sina has assisted the BMU in negotiations at the European level on issues of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and is working on ETS and CBAM projects.

His work on energy law includes studies on EU legal acts such as the Renewable Energy Directive and the Electricity Market Directive and Ordinance, and projects on German energy law such as the structuring of a comprehensive national energy law or research on an industrial electricity price.  He also supported the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) regarding the implementation of European Network Codes in Germany and in an accompanying research process for Germany's major energy research programme SINTEG that showcased innovative solutions for a fully renewable energy system.

Regarding environmental compliance, Stephan Sina has contributed to several studies on environmental criminal law at the European and national level, inter alia for the EU-funded research project EU Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE) and on the status of environmental criminal law in Germany. He has presented project results and recommendations to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) of the European Parliament and to the experts of the Bund and the Länder on cross-cutting issues of environmental law. In addition, he participated as an expert in a hearing of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia on strengthening the fight against environmental crime. He also works on administrative fines and other sanctions at the EU and national level. 

His work on resource governance focusses on waste law and policy. He contributed to studies and papers on plastic waste pollution, extended producer responsibility and mineral governance.

In addition to his research and consultancy work, Stephan Sina has been teaching on international climate change law in a programme for international students at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR) and has lectured on environmental law at the Berlin Academy for Administration.

Before joining Ecologic Institute, Stephan Sina practiced environmental and energy law at a law firm and worked as a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (Germany).

Stephan Sina studied law at the Universities of Freiburg, Bonn, Heidelberg (Germany), and Edinburgh (United Kingdom). With a scholarship from the Cusanuswerk, Stephan Sina obtained his PhD with a thesis on the international status of the Palestinian Autonomous Territories. He has a diploma in comparative law from the University of Strasbourg (France).

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Recent content by Stephan Sina

Publication:Book Section
 
Cover of the book " A research agenda for environmental crime and law"
As part of the section on new and emerging themes in the book A Research Agenda for Environmental Crime and the Law, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, contributed a chapter titled "Climate Change and Criminal Justice". In this chapter, he explores why criminal law currently plays only a marginal role in discussions on climate change mitigation – and whether this should, and could, be changed.

Climate Change and Criminal Justice

Chapter in A Research Agenda for Environmental Crime and the Law

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Publication:Document
 
Dr Ralph Bodle, Arne Riedel and Dr Stephan Sina from Ecologic Institute's Legal Team are among the authors of the comprehensive legal commentary on climate change law (BeckOK Klimarecht), which was published by C. H. Beck on their online platform in December 2024. The commentary is edited by Prof Ekkehard Hofmann and Dr Franziska Heß and is the first to cover climate-related laws and treaties at international, European and national level.

BeckOK Klimarecht

Legal commentaries on Climate Law

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Event:Visitors Program
 
On 21 October 2024, Ecologic Institute hosted a delegation from Beijing, accompanied by representatives from GIZ. This visit took place in the context of the project "Analyses of German and European Climate Law Structure," and underscores the Institute's commitment to fostering global knowledge exchange on climate action.

Analyses of the Structure of German and European Climate Protection Law


Berlin, Germany

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Project
 
The revised EU Environmental Crime Directive (ECD) requires Member States to punish ecocide-like consequences of an environmental criminal offence as a qualified criminal offence. On behalf of Stop Ecocide Germany, Ecologic Institute is investigating how this new regulation can be transposed into German criminal law.

Transposition of the EU 'Ecocide' Provision into German Criminal Law

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Presentation:Speech
 
On 3 September 2024, Dr Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation on ‘Legislation between Climate Action and Security of Supply - Challenges of the Energy Transition’ as part of a visit by a delegation from the Legislative Affairs Commission (LAC) of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China to the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. In addition to two further presentations by representatives of the Ministry, there was an exchange of views with the Chinese delegation.

Legislation between Climate Action and Security of Supply


Stephan Sina

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Publication:Book Section
 
Book cover titled 'Współczesne Wyzwania Prawa Ochrony Klimatu', edited by Maria Magdalena Kenig-Witkowska, Anna Barczak, and Marcin Stoczkiewicz. The cover has a simple design with a white background and a blue section at the bottom. The publisher's logo, Wolters Kluwer, is visible at the lower left corner.
As an output of the international academic conference "Towards the Polish Climate Protection Act" on 7 September 2022 in Szczecin, Wolters Kluwer Poland has published an edited volume entitled "Współczesne Wyzwania Prawa Ochony Klimatu" (Contemporary challenges of climate law). Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, contributed an English language essay on the German Federal Climate Change Act. He describes the development and main features of the Act, as well as its revision based on the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on 24 March 2021. He also presents lessons learned and good practices, and addresses challenges.

The German Federal Climate Change Act

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Publication:Report
 
cover oage (updated)
This publication discusses the penalty regime to be established by the EU Member States to sanction infringements against the recently adopted EU Methane Regulation (EU-MER). In these regimes, (administrative) fines will play a major role. The EU-MER stipulates that the level of fines must be proportionate to the environmental damage and impact on human health associated with the infringement as the core criterion. The working paper proposes applying a core reference value of 6.000 EUR/tCH4 to be adjusted according to the aggravating or mitigating factors foreseen by the regulation.

Penalties and Selected Legal Issues

Implementing the EU Methane Regulation Working Paper N° 3

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Project
 
As part of the implementation of its NDC, the Chinese government is focusing on further developing its climate legislation. According to recent developments, China plans to develop an environmental code with a chapter on climate. The Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports the Chinese side by strengthening exchange between experts and stakeholders from the two countries and providing information on German and EU experience in this field. In this context, Ecologic Institute will conduct two studies on German and European climate legislation, one of them focusing on the structure of climate-related laws and their relationship to environmental laws.

Analyses of German and European Climate Law Structure

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