Energy communities are considered as vehicles for citizens to collectively engage in the generation, consumption, storage, trading, and distribution of energy, marking a shift towards a decentralized, sustainable, and inclusive energy framework. EU has been at the forefront of championing the energy community initiative, while citizen engagement in energy communities is an essential tool towards energy transition. Across the European Union (EU), more than 9,000 energy communities are actively addressing energy poverty. “Renewable Energy Communities” (RECs) and “Citizen Energy Communities” (CECs) are concepts already defined in EU legislation, granting these groups a recognized presence in the energy sector focused on local engagement and community benefit over profit. In addition, the 2019 European Green Deal emphasized that citizens are and should remain a driving force of the transition to sustainability. Legislative strides tied to the “Fit for 55” initiative and the “RePowerEU” plan show the EU's drive to foster community-scale, participatory renewable energy systems.

The overall responsibility for monitoring and coordinating, at the highest political level, the national implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in Greece lies with the Presidency of the Government (PoG) established by the “Executive State” law in August 2019 for the purpose of coordinating the planning and monitoring the implementation of the whole Government programme and work, ensuring the  promotion of a whole-of-government approach and reinforcing the imperative political ownership of public policies.

In September 2009, a Canadian investor, Peter Allard, instituted proceedings before the Permanent Court of Arbitration against Barbados, for breaches of the Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of Barbados for the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments, signed on 29 May 1996 (Canada-Barbados BIT). In particular, the investor claimed that his US$35 million investment, an eco-tourism project in Barbados (Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary) underwent indirect expropriation, due to Barbados's failure to fulfill its environmental obligations, deriving from both domestic legislation as well as international environmental law. In 27 June 2016, the Tribunal issued the much-anticipated award, ultimately rejecting the claim of the investor. Even though, prima facie, this appears to be yet another investment dispute (albeit with environmental components), a closer look to the facts of the case provides an interesting insight.

Arguably, reversing the accelerating rates of biodiversity loss constitutes one of the world's largest environmental challenges. The 1992 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), aiming precisely at addressing this problem, constitutes the first attempt to provide a comprehensive and inclusive framework for the conservation of biodiversity, thus trying to remedy the piecemeal and ad hoc way in which international rules of flora and fauna protection had been developed in non-binding instruments (principle 4 of the Stockholm Declaration, the 1982 World Charter for Nature, Chapter 15 of Agenda 21), as well as in a series of species or sites specific treaties .

On the 40th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (WHC), marked in 2012, almost all States (190) are parties to it, along with two non-state entities, the Holy See and Palestine respectively. WHC was the first international instrument that articulated natural and cultural heritage protection in the same context, under the pressure of the UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972), which proclaimed the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment that extends over both aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made .

The UN General Assembly pursuant to its Resolution 64/236 (24 December 2009) organized in June 2012 the United Nation Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) which was focused on two themes: (i) a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and, (ii) institutional framework for sustainable development (IFSD). In an effort to highlight the importance of stakeholders for the promotion of sustainable development, the UNGA encouraged the active participation of all nine Major Groups (MGs), as defined by Agenda 21, at all stages of Rio+20 preparatory process.