Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 31 - 60 of 77
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
The Black Hole In The Kyoto Protocol: Was The Exclusion Of Black Carbon Regulation A "Fatal Flaw"?, Jon Feldon
The Black Hole In The Kyoto Protocol: Was The Exclusion Of Black Carbon Regulation A "Fatal Flaw"?, Jon Feldon
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Claiming that the Kyoto Protocol (“Protocol”) was “fatally flawed in fundamental ways,” on June 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush simultaneously condemned the landmark international agreement against climate change and announced that the United States would withdraw from participation in it. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) drafted the Protocol in 1997 in order to fight the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change through an international carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions reduction plan. Over 160 nations ratified the Protocol. The United States and Australia are the only countries in the developed world not to participate.
World News, Scott Johnson
World News, Scott Johnson
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
On January 10, 2007, as various meteorological organizations suggested a high probability that 2007 will be the world’s warmest year ever, the European Commission (“EC”) announced a new plan to intensify its campaign to limit greenhouse gas emissions and bolster energy security with a new energy policy for Europe. The policy, grounded in goals of: (1) an internal European energy market; (2) use of low-carbon energy; and (3) increased energy efficiency, proposes that, under a future “global agreement,” developed nations should reduce greenhouse gas emissions to an average of 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 50 percent …
Economic Growth And The Environment: India Confronts The Link Between Automobiles And Climate Change, Rahul Saksena
Economic Growth And The Environment: India Confronts The Link Between Automobiles And Climate Change, Rahul Saksena
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
as a result of economic growth, India is experiencing vast changes in the country’s social, political, and environmental landscape. One such change is the rapid increase in automobile usage. This drastic increase has serious environ- mental implications, but addressing the issue — and solving the problems that it creates — will not be an easy task.
What Next For The Alliance Of Small Island States In The Climate Change Arena?, Daniel Brindis
What Next For The Alliance Of Small Island States In The Climate Change Arena?, Daniel Brindis
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Small Island States (“SIS”) fight a high stakes uphill battle in advocating their interests in climate change treaty negotiation. This class of 43 nations represents only five percent of the world’s population, a miniscule portion of the world’s gross domestic product, and is the most vulnerable class of states to global climate change. The isolation of these states and their limited capacity to adapt to natural disasters stand to aggravate the harmful effects of climate change.
Carbon Offsets: Are Such Credits Effectively Helping Mitigate Climate Change?, Catherine Verdier
Carbon Offsets: Are Such Credits Effectively Helping Mitigate Climate Change?, Catherine Verdier
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Each year, the Oxford University Press selects a word to be added to the New Oxford American Dictionary — a word that not only reflects the events and concerns of the proceeding year but also is forward-looking. In 2006, the word of the year was “carbon neutral.” Numerous airlines, businesses, athletes, entertainers, international institutions, and more have expressed their commitment to carbon neutrality.
Islands Of Garbage Continue To Grow In Pacific, Ursula Kazarian
Islands Of Garbage Continue To Grow In Pacific, Ursula Kazarian
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Hundreds of square miles of discarded plastic have formed islands on the high seas, created by drifting debris caught in the oceans’ currents. The islands are held together at the points where these currents merge, producing massive, rotating vortexes of trash visible to the human eye from afar. The largest of these islands, located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and San Francisco and known as the “Eastern Garbage Patch,” is reportedly twice the size of Texas and continuing to grow. The slightly smaller “Western Garbage Patch” lurks off of the shores of Japan. Many more are growing around …
International Whaling Commission Indicates Potential Reversal Of Policy, Athena Kennedy, Jon Feldon
International Whaling Commission Indicates Potential Reversal Of Policy, Athena Kennedy, Jon Feldon
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
In June, the International Whaling Commission (“IWC”) held its 58th Annual Meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis and, for the first time since its inception in 1946, declared that it intends to reintroduce “controlled and sustainable” whaling of certain whale species.The 33-32 vote is purely declaratory and does not effect a change in the IWC’s ban on whaling, which would take a 75 percent vote to overturn. However, organizations across the globe call the vote an indication of a dramatic policy shift demonstrating an “abdication of responsibility by the global community” and a sign of IWC evolution from a conservational …
World News, Scott Johnson, Cari Shiffman, Daniel Winokur
World News, Scott Johnson, Cari Shiffman, Daniel Winokur
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
An August 2006 report by China’s Zhejiang Provincial Environmental Bureau (“ZPEB”) highlights continuing damage from petrochemical waste, heavy metals pollution, and overfishing to the Zhoushan fishery in the East China Sea. The Zhoushan fishery is among the largest in the East China Sea, and home to more than three hundred fish species, more than eighty shrimp and crab species, and more than 125 varieties of algae. The fishery accounts for ten percent of China’s total annual fish catches and fifty percent of total catches for the Zhe- jiang Province. The ZPEB study indicates that 81 percent of the 20,800 km2 …
Regulatory Frameworks For Water Resources Management: A Comparative Study By Salman M.A. Salman & David D. Bradlow The World Bank, 2006, Julia Yeagle
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Salman and Bradlow begin by observing that as water has become an increasingly scarce resource, many states have started to adopt legislation to address a variety of issues facing the water sector. Based on a state’s legislative response, the authors place it into one of three categories: (1) countries that have adopted comprehensive water statutes; (2) countries that are struggling to agree on a comprehensive statute; and (3) countries that have addressed water issues in provisions that are scattered throughout different laws and regulations.
Sound Management Of Chemicals In Developing Countries Under The Rotterdam Convention, Sun Young Oh
Sound Management Of Chemicals In Developing Countries Under The Rotterdam Convention, Sun Young Oh
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Many developing countries lack the necessary infrastructure and appropriate environmental regulations to handle hazardous chemicals in an environmentally sound manner. Effective technical and financial assistance for developing countries is necessary to achieve the Convention’s long-term success. Since “developing nations are the main recipients of international trade in chemicals that the Rotterdam Convention addresses,” it is vital that importing nations have the ability to evaluate the safety of the imported chemicals. This may prevent developed countries from exporting dangerous chemicals to developing countries as a way to cheaply dispose of them and avoid environmental regulations.
India's Toxic Landfills: A Dumping Ground For The World's Electronic Waste, Nisha Thakker
India's Toxic Landfills: A Dumping Ground For The World's Electronic Waste, Nisha Thakker
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
From New Delhi in the north, to Calcutta in the south, a repetitive striking image is found in India’s metropolises. One reporter writes of a “hostile zone” in Calcutta where “high brick walls block the views of activities going on with- in.” What hides behind those walls, however, tells a chilling tale of what happens to the discarded electronics of developed countries. These electronic waste (“e-waste”) scrap yards have become common in India. Within these landfills children “as young as eight-years-old tear apart electronic components with bare hands, while vats of acid lying just a few feet away bubble like …
Chemical Taking: Glyphosate And The Eradication Of Due Process In Colombia, David A. Wilhite
Chemical Taking: Glyphosate And The Eradication Of Due Process In Colombia, David A. Wilhite
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Cocaine politics continues to take a toll on Colombian social, political, economic, and legal stability. Coca is indigenous to the Andean Mountains and for hundreds of years, native populations and immigrants to the region have consumed its leaves for both medicinal and customary purposes. The United States consumes cocaine at a rate of over 300 metric tons per year. Each year approximately 6,548,000 North Americans consume cocaine, annually spending $43.6 billion. In an effort to curb this consumption, and because coca is the base of cocaine, the American and Colombian governments have combined forces using pesticide in an attempt to …
World News, J.C. Sylvan, Cari Shiffman, Frank Pigott, Abigail Okrent
World News, J.C. Sylvan, Cari Shiffman, Frank Pigott, Abigail Okrent
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Since an explosion on November 13, 2005 at Jilin Petrochemical Corporation’s benzene factory in the northeastern city of Harbin, 45 other pollution accidents were reported to China’s State Environmental Protection Administration [“SEPA”], including six “major disasters.” The Harbin explosion poured one hundred tons of the carcinogenic benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River in a plume of contaminated water 150 kilometers long. Ten thousand people were evacuated and four million people had no public water services for several days. On February 14, 2006, another major spill in the Yuexi River left 20,000 residents of the Sichuan village of Guanyin without …
Fair Trade For All: How Trade Can Promote Development By Joseph Stiglitz And Andrew Charlton, Maria Vanko
Fair Trade For All: How Trade Can Promote Development By Joseph Stiglitz And Andrew Charlton, Maria Vanko
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton recently released a book that aims to bridge the gaps felt by both developed and developing countries. Fair Trade For All presents a broad agenda by which trade policies can integrate developing countries into the world market. With the presumption that trade is good for development, Stiglitz and Charlton suggest a carefully managed trade liberalization agenda. They criticize the Washington Consensus’ simple prescription of rapid liberalization and privatization of markets as causing instability and inequality, and instead propose an alternative model that emphasizes fairness. They contend that the assumption that broad market liberalization makes countries …
Product-Based Environmental Regulations: Europe Sets The Pace, Paul E. Hagen
Product-Based Environmental Regulations: Europe Sets The Pace, Paul E. Hagen
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Environmental law practitioners in the United States will want to take note of these new product- based measures for several reasons. First, as the EU is the largest trading partner of the United States, these new product-based measures are critically important to U.S. companies. Second, in conditioning market access to adherence with new product standards, the EU is, in effect, establishing global product standards, as few U.S. companies can afford to ignore a potential consumer market that is now much larger than the United States or even all of North America. In this regard, in-house counsel and environmental health and …
The Legal Dimensions Of Climate Change: Conference Report, Jennifer Rohleder, Jillian Button
The Legal Dimensions Of Climate Change: Conference Report, Jennifer Rohleder, Jillian Button
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
The conference was attended by more than 150 participants representing a broad spectrum of the legal community: law students and faculty, in-house counsel, law firm attorneys, government policymakers, and public interest advocates. The attendees gained information about the latest developments in the field, with a special focus on the challenges and opportunities faced by the business sector. Case studies explored how leading companies assess risk, evaluate their emissions, and develop reduction strategies. Participants left the event with information and skills they will be able to use to help assess corporate climate risks and opportunities, and develop strategies for the future. …
The Effects Of The Kyoto Protocol On Taiwan, Yi-Yuan William Su
The Effects Of The Kyoto Protocol On Taiwan, Yi-Yuan William Su
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, like many international agreements, limit participation in negotiations and ratification to “States.” After the General Assembly of the United Nations recognized the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) as the only representative of China in 1971, most States severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. As it is not recognized as a “State” pursuant to international treaty definitions, Taiwan faces a tremendous obstacle to participating in international organizations. For instance, it is typically excluded from negotiations and discussion in all meetings concerning multilateral environmental agreements.
Climate Change, The Kyoto Protocol, And The World Trade Organization: Challenges And Conflicts, Daniel Mcnamee
Climate Change, The Kyoto Protocol, And The World Trade Organization: Challenges And Conflicts, Daniel Mcnamee
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
This article seeks to address one possible domestic step that State Parties to the Kyoto Protocol may take to reduce emissions, the additional measure which must be taken to address the international competitiveness of the effected industries, and the compatibility of these measures with WTO obligations. In particular, the article will address the use of a tax based on the amount of carbon or energy used during the production process. While such a tax may effectively reduce harmful emissions, it will also increase costs for domestic industry, thereby reducing international competitiveness. Therefore, governments may seek to implement a border tax …
The Role Of Third-Party Verification In Emissions Trading Systems: Developing Best Practices, Jennifer Rohleder
The Role Of Third-Party Verification In Emissions Trading Systems: Developing Best Practices, Jennifer Rohleder
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
This article examines several of the emissions trading systems currently in place around the world and how they conduct their monitoring and verification processes. By comparing the systems, and studying their experiences, we can distill best practices for implementing an effective monitoring and verification protocol. Compliance is required in both a command-and-control system and a trading system; but a trading system has the additional demands of transparency and confidence in the scheme. Verification is critical because it promotes compliance, which in turn is needed to foster trust and stability in the market. Emissions disclosure must be universally trusted in order …
World News, Blase Kornacki, Abby Okrent, Jennifer Rohlender, Mauro Zinner
World News, Blase Kornacki, Abby Okrent, Jennifer Rohlender, Mauro Zinner
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (“FAO”) announced that there is an increased risk of the bird flu spread- ing to North Africa and East Africa. The FAO warns that East Africa in particular will have difficulties containing the flu. The close proximity between humans and animals in East Africa creates an ideal situation for spreading the flu to people. A number of African countries have already responded to predictions of avian flu. For instance, Congo-Brazzaville banned poultry imports. South Africa’s Department of Health placed an urgent request for the flu medicine Tamiflu to be approved for use in the …
Water Privatization And Obstacles To Achieving Millennium Development Goal Seven's Targets For Sustainable Drinking Water, Maria Vanko
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Militant uprisings in Cochabamaba, Bolivia in 1999 occurred after the private water provider implemented a 300 percent fee increase. In 2003, tariffs increased 700 percent while the water operator’s negligence led to cholera outbreaks in West Manila, Philippines. Increased prices make safe water unaffordable for vulnerable populations, forcing families to make trade-offs between water, schooling, food, and healthcare. Private industry is also less likely to participate in areas where recovery of their investment is riskier.
The Anti-Prostitution Pledge: Limiting Speech And Development, Rachel Moshman
The Anti-Prostitution Pledge: Limiting Speech And Development, Rachel Moshman
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (“Global AIDS Act” or “GAA”) places two limitations on organizations that are eligible to receive funding under this Act. First, funding may not be used to “promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking.” Second, any organization that receives funding must have a “policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking . . .” The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2003 (“TVPA”) has similar requirements. It states that no funding can be made available to “promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution,” and that any organization receiving funding …
Keeping Cell Phones Affordable: Regulating The Private Sector's Contribution To Development, Rachel Moshman
Keeping Cell Phones Affordable: Regulating The Private Sector's Contribution To Development, Rachel Moshman
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
One of the targets of Millennium Development Goal Eight, “Develop a Global Partnership for Development,” is to cooperate with the private sector to “make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies.” International development professionals, such as Jeffrey Sachs, have listed numerous benefits that can be brought to the developing world through cell phone technology, including communicating with long-distance family members, increasing communication between different villages, finding employment opportunities, having more options in emergency situations, allowing fisherman and farmers to check market prices before leaving the village, and allowing quick and easy transfer of funds. Cell …
The Millennium Development Goals And Hiv/Aids, J.C. Sylvan
The Millennium Development Goals And Hiv/Aids, J.C. Sylvan
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
In the countries hardest hit by the epidemic, the problem is compounded by the reality that many national health care systems, which will bear the burden of improving available treatments, are themselves in crisis. In years past, many developing countries, encouraged by international financial institutions and trusting in privatization, cut their health care budgets. As a result, health care has been chronically under-funded in many of these countries. According to a recent report by the UN Millennium Project, “[p]overty, misplaced priorities, and years of externally imposed restrictions on social spending have left health services for over two billion people dysfunctional, …
Conditional Cash Transfers: Progress Towards The Millennium Development Goals, Blase Kornacki
Conditional Cash Transfers: Progress Towards The Millennium Development Goals, Blase Kornacki
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Conditional cash transfer programs are transforming Latin America’s approach to social welfare. CCTs provide money to families living in extreme poverty in exchange for the commitment to invest in human capital. The programs aim at replacing the “traditional supply-side mechanisms” with “demand-side interventions to directly support beneficiaries.” Traditional mechanisms battled poverty with subsidies or direct investments in public goods, whereas the new approach channels support directly to the people and promotes investment in human capital, using market approaches as an incentive to use social services such as primary and secondary education and local health centers.
Protecting Children And Their Mothers: The Millennium Development Goals Push Lofty Heath Targets, Frank Pigott
Protecting Children And Their Mothers: The Millennium Development Goals Push Lofty Heath Targets, Frank Pigott
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2005 (“UN report”) shows that child mortality is strongly related to poverty level, as poor countries have less access to advances in child survival treatments than wealthier countries. Five diseases are responsible for fifty percent of all deaths of children under five – pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, and AIDS. The data suggests that nutrition is the most important preventative measure, because malnutrition weakens the immune system. According to the UN report, safe water, better sanitation, education, and higher income levels can also increase a child’s life expectancy. Other measures to reduce child mortality …
Establishing Sound Chemicals Management A Prerequisite For Achieving The Millennium Development Goals, Kelly Rain
Establishing Sound Chemicals Management A Prerequisite For Achieving The Millennium Development Goals, Kelly Rain
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Modern society could not maintain its current standard of living without chemicals; however, sound chemicals management is necessary to prevent harm to human health and the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme – along with governments, relevant intergovernmental groups, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders – has begun the process of establishing a Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (“SAICM”). The importance of this process is far-reaching, demonstrated by the fact that hazardous chemicals hinder the achievement of development targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”).
Access To Justice And The Right To Adequate Food: Implementing Millennium Development Goal One, Marc J. Cohen, Mary Ashby Brown
Access To Justice And The Right To Adequate Food: Implementing Millennium Development Goal One, Marc J. Cohen, Mary Ashby Brown
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
The first MDG adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 is to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” with a target of “[reducing] by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.” The 1996 World Food Summit (“WFS”) had similarly agreed on “reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.”
Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development By Durwood Zaelke, Donald Kaniaru, And Eva Kružíková Cameron May Ltd., 2005, Cari Shiffman
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
The compilation, produced by the Secretariat of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (“INECE”), along with the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, at the University of California in Santa Barbara, is a two volume collection of literature by both academics and practitioners that details the strengths and weaknesses of environmental compliance within legal systems. Editors Durwood Zaelke, Director of the INECE Secretariat, Donald Kaniaru, Managing Partner of Kaniaru & Kaniaru Advocates in Nairobi, Kenya, and Eva Kružíková, co- founder and …
Promoting Gender Equality Through Global Education Targets- The Third Millennium Development Goal, Nikka Thakker
Promoting Gender Equality Through Global Education Targets- The Third Millennium Development Goal, Nikka Thakker
PEEL Alumni Scholarship
Achieving this goal by 2015 seems optimistic; the first half of the goal was not fulfilled since a gender gap still exists in primary and secondary education. In a report released in 2003, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (“UNICEF”) urged that “accelerated action” must be taken to get more girls into school over the next two years, otherwise other MDGs, including goals to reduce poverty and improve the human condition, would also not be realized. By keeping the girls away from the classroom, they will lack the knowledge necessary, for example, to keep themselves out of poverty and …