Law Commons^™

Developing An International Carbon Tax Regime, Steven Specht

Steven Specht

As atmospheric CO2 remains in the range of 400 ppm, it is necessary to find new international coordination to deal with climate change. The best way forward is an international regime of harmonized domestic carbon taxes. By agreeing to a minimum amount of taxation on domestic, point-source producers, money can be set aside for adaptation costs and alternative means of energy production. Finally, such a plan will overcome the problem of non-participation of countries in agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. As this is a treaty dealing with economics and trade, countries can place taxes on imports of non-participatory countries under …

“Gatting” The New Climate Treaty Right: Leveraging Energy Subsidies To Promote Multilateralism, Deepa Badrinarayana

Deepa Badrinarayana

Business Responses To Climate Change Overview Of This Issue , Perry Wallace

Perry Wallace

No abstract provided.

The President, The Environment, And Foreign Policy: The Globalization Of Environmental Politics, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

By comparison with domestic environmental issues, international environmental diplomacy is distinguished by the far greater role of the Executive Branch, and in particular the President, in making law. This essay explores the legal consequences of the President's dual role in international environmental diplomacy: his duty faithfully to execute statutory mandates adopted by Congress while also serving as the Nation's chief diplomat and negotiator of international agreements with foreign powers. The piece discusses the legal and policy dynamics surrounding two concrete examples affecting domestic and international environmental policy, in which Presidential power assumes dramatically different forms: (1) climate change, and in …

Climate Change Consensus: Emerging International Law, Prof. Elizabeth N. Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article focuses on emerging international law addressing climate change. Providing a background on international negotiations, it considers the greenhouse gas emissions targets needed to avert catastrophic climate change. Assessing the funding debate, this article concludes that agreement in Copenhagen must result in a comprehensive instrument with which to maintain global emissions below 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Multilateral coordination can develop an effective framework for climate stabilization.

Global Warming: A Second Coming For International Law?, Deepa Badrinarayana

Deepa Badrinarayana

This paper analyzes the role of international law in addressing global warming through the lens of a select number of compliance theories and rational choice theory. It presents an alternative view to the limits of international law in addressing climate change, i.e., that international law has created an economic dependency that has constrained the space for pursuit of traditional legal rights. In making this argument, this article examines the history oil exploration and climate policy. The article also makes some brief suggestions towards increasing the space for traditional legal rights.

Air Pollution As An Asset: China's Use Of The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, Bryant Walker Smith

Bryant Walker Smith

This article, which examines the use of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the People's Republic of China, has two purposes. First, it places both China and the CDM in the larger context of international environmental law. Second, it analyzes and assesses China’s use of the CDM.

The article has six parts. Following a brief note about Taiwan, Part 3 discusses climate change and China. Part 4 tracks the global response to climate change, including the CDM. Part 5 examines the relationship between the CDM and China, and Part 6 concludes with a consideration of additional challenges present …

Achieving Early And Substantial Greenhouse Gas Reductions Under A Post-Kyoto Agreement, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article explains why policy makers should seriously consider substantial early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as a part of any post-Kyoto framework, and sets out suggested elements of a framework for early action in a post-Kyoto agreement. Substantial early reductions are needed because of the growing urgency of the climate change science, the precautionary approach identified in the Framework Convention on Climate Change as a decision-making principle, the fact that cost-effective measures are now available, and the significant non-climate benefits (security, economic, social, and environmental) that can be achieved by implementing them. As a practical matter, too, long-term greenhouse …

Carbon Trading: Environment’S Tryst With Economics, Ved Prakash

VED PRAKASH

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) to begin to consider reduction of global warming and finally after intense negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 3) in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and finally comes into force on 16 February 2005. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.