The environmental passport of the land

On February 17, 2023, an international scientific meeting was held at the Instituto Jurídico of the Law School of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, with participants from Portugal and Spain. The topic was the contribution of the electronic land registry to the ecological transition, entitled “Environmental passport of the farm“.

The event was organized by the Instituto Jurídico of the Law School and the Instituto de los Registros y del Notariado (IRN) with the support of ELRA and  Registradores of Spain.

The climate and environmental crisis, formally declared in 39 countries, forces us to think about new legal models for the energy and ecological transition. In addition to bans and permits, planning and incentives, emission permits and green bonds, the land registry can be a key legal instrument in the desired transformation. The consideration of environmental and climate aspects reinforces the relevance given to the reality of the building in the land registry, giving visibility to the contributions, positive or negative, of each property to the state of the environment and climate at local, national and global levels. The consideration, in the cadastre, of the ecological characteristics of the buildings and of the climatic and environmental effects of the human activities developed on them and the changes in land use, makes it possible to prevent chain effects and irreversible changes of state. The new environmental and climatic functions of the land registry will influence the real estate legal traffic through knowledge of the ecological value of the building, making transactions more transparent and public policies more responsible.

The conclusions of this conference, which may guide future legislative policies, can be read at the following link: The environmental passport of the land – conclusions