Dr. Stephan Sina
Rechtsanwalt (Lawyer)
Senior Fellow
Coordinating In-house Counsel
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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 and environmental compliance with a focus on criminal law. 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 has also assisted the BMU in negotiations at the European level on issues of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
His work on energy law includes an assessment of the Renewable Energy Directive, support for the implementation of European Network Codes in Germany, and a project on the structuring of a comprehensive national energy law. He also supports the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in an accompanying research process for Germany's major energy research programme SINTEG that showcases innovative solutions for a fully renewable energy system.
Regarding environmental compliance, Stephan Sina has contributed to several studies on environmental criminal law and wildlife crime at the European and national level, inter alia for the EU-funded research project EU Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE). 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.
Other areas of expertise include resource governance with a focus on waste law and policy, notably plastic waste pollution.
In addition to his research and consultancy work, Stephan Sina has lectured on environmental law at the Berlin Academy for Administration and has been teaching climate change law in a programme for international students at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR).
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).