For the second year in a row, victory in the Environmental Law Moot Court goes to WU Vienna. Coached by LawGov’s Birgit Hollaus and Claudia Wutscher (IOER), the team, consisting of Christina Schraml, Marion Pistelka, Maren Migliore, Anna Pflüger, and Sebastian Wurm, prevailed both orally and in writing against the student teams from the universities of Graz (Environmental Ombudsman), Salzburg (participating authority), Linz (neighbours), and Vienna (authority). A nice bonus – with prize winner Marion Pistelka, the Best Speaker Award also went to WU.

As every year, the aim of the competition was to obtain permit for a real-life project. Once again this year, the aim was to obtain a plant licence for a real project.

The plant operated by EVN in Dürnrohr for CO₂ capture and the production of green hydrogen and green methane was quite complex in both factual and legal terms. As the applicant, the WU team had to make a submission. It had to deal with legal issues that had previously been dealt with little or not at all, such as the categorisation of the captured CO₂ as waste. Only then was it possible to decide what would be the best strategic choice for the client and prepare the application accordingly. In this decision and throughout the process, the team was supported by practice partner Berthold Lindner (Lindner Stimmler Rechtsanwälte GmbH & Co KG).

The team’s application was completely convincing – parties could find very little to argue against the authorisation of the project. The authority ultimately granted the permit.