Panel II – Palaissaal – 23 June 2025, 13:30

Moderation

Matthias Sauer, Deputy Director General, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

Short Biography

Mr. Matthias Sauer, studied law and political sciences and joined the Federal Ministry in Germany in 1996. Since 2011, he was head of the division responsible inter alia for the “Federal Act on Access to Environmental Information (UIG)” and as well for matters of the “UN ECE Aarhus Convention”. In 2022, he became head of the section on “Fundamental Aspects of Environmental Policy and Environmental Law” that includes inter alia his former unit as described above.

Keynote Speaker and Panelist

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schomerus, University Professor for Public Law, in particular Energy and Environmental Law, Elected Member of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee

Short Biography

Thomas Schomerus (University Professor Dr. iur. Dr. h.c., *1957), studied law at the universities of Hamburg and Göttingen from 1976 – 1981.

1988, he started his career as a civil servant for the City of Hamburg.

Since 1996 he has been working as professor of public law, in particular energy and environmental law, at the Sustainability Faculty of Leuphana University Lüneburg.

Schomerus has worked intensively on cooperation with foreign universities and institutions. His broad international network covers many countries, ranging from USA, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Georgia and other European countries to Mongolia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

2014 - 2021, he worked as part-time Judge (Richter im 2. Hauptamt) at the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony in Lüneburg. In 2021, he was elected as a member of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC), making Genva/Switzerland his second workplace. 2016, the Humboldt Foundation appointed him as a member of the selection committee for Prospective Leaders in Climate Protection and climate-related Resource Conservation.

Schomerus has published over 300 books and articles on various subjects of environmental and energy law, and he has worked on numerous research projects.

He is married, with three adult children and two grandchildren.

Panelists

Prof. Dr. Jerzy Jendrośka, Elected Member and Vice Chair of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee

Short Biography

Jerzy Jendroska Ph.D, Professor at Opole University (Poland), Managing Partner at Jendrośka Jerzmański Bar and Partner. Environmental Lawyers (JJB) in Wrocław and Chief Environmental Law Specialist in the Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute in Warsaw.

In addition to lecturing at Opole University, he has been regularly lecturing   as Guest-Professor in a number of European law schools, including at European Law Academy in Trier, Germany (2014-2021), in Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia, (2017-2023), and in  the Environmental Law Summer School in Como University , Italy (since 2017). 

Professor Jendrośka  has been heavily involved in a number of international processes, including serving as the Vice-Chair of the  Aarhus Convention negotiations (1996-1998) and SEA Protocol negotiations (2001-2003), as the Secretary to the Aarhus Convention (1998-1999) and as the vice-Chair (1999-2002) and later the Chair (2002-2003) of the Aarhus Convention Bureau.

He served as an arbitrator at the Permanent Court of Arbitrage in the Hague (2001-2016) and as a member the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention (2004-2017).

He currently serves as a Vice-Chair of the Aarhus Compliance Committee (member since 2005, Vice-Chair since 2021).

In Poland he served as Vice-Chair of the State GMO Commission (2002-2006), member of National EIA Commission (1994-2008) and a member of the State Environmental Protection Council (2014-2019).

Professor Jendrośka has been involved as a leading legal consultant in drafting environmental legislation (in particular related to EIA, SEA and Aarhus Convention-related issues) in Poland and in a number of countries in EU, Eastern  and SouthEastern Europe, South Caucasus,  Central Asia and China, and in the Latin America and Carribean.

He has authored and/or edited 31 books and more than 250 articles on environmental law.

Summer Kern, Lawyer and NGO Observer to the Bureau to the Aarhus Convention Justice and Environment

Short Biography

Summer Kern is an attorney (US qualified) with over 20 years of experience in US, Austrian, EU and international environmental law. She is a senior lawyer at Justice and Environment (a network of environmental NGOs with members in 15 countries, most of which are in the EU) and is the NGO Observer to the Bureau to the UNECE Aarhus Convention.

Previously, Summer has worked at NGOs in the US and Austria, for the Aarhus and Espoo secretariats at the UNECE, and as an expert and trainer for the EU and international bodies.

Her work has focused on access to information, public participation, and access to justice, with a focus on large infrastructure projects, mainly energy and transport.

Prof. Dr. Heloísa Oliveira, Assistant Professor/Research Fellow, University of Lisbon/Lisbon Public Law Research Centre

Short Biography

Heloísa Oliveira holds a Ph.D. in law (2020) by the University of Lisbon School of Law, with a thesis on environmental damage, where she is also an Assistant Professor. She is a Research Fellow at Lisbon Public Law Research Center – where she is the PI for the Legal Roadmap for Sustainability and the Climate Litigation Observatory projects – and a Consultant at the Legal Service of the Portuguese Government. Her research is on environmental law from an administrative, international, and European Union Law and fundamental rights perspective. Currently, her focus is on the transition to a circular economy and climate litigation.

She has participated in many scientific meetings and published several papers and book chapters on her area of research, as well as several books. She acted as the Chief of Staff for the Secretary of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, from 2017 to 2019; and as a legal adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 2015 to 2017. In the private sector, she was a lawyer at Cuatrecasas, from 2007 to 2011.