Law Commons^™

What Role For Renewable Energy In International Law?, Mar Campins Eritja

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Promotion of renewable energies is crucial to achieving the reduction targets and climate change mitigation aimed by the international law. At the global level, the year 2012 has been proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Sustainable Energy (Res. 65/151). This is a valuable opportunity for public awareness regarding sustainable energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy. At the European Union, while linked to climate change strategy, the environmental dimension is now also covered by the EU energy policy, thanks to the Treaty of Lisbon. Therefore, the relevance of renewable energy sources will increase over the next few …

Rio +20, Agenda 21, And Progress Towards Ocean Protection, Anastasia Telesetsky

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Twenty years ago, States produced the Agenda 21, an ambitious blueprint for sustainable development, and presented it at the 1992 Rio Conference. This paper queries how the international community has done in achieving its Agenda 21 goals related to ocean protection. Are we on track? Or do we need to rethink some of our strategies for ocean protection and pursue new directions?

In this empirical study, the author compares international and domestic law and policy covering seven main Agenda 21 implementation areas: integrated management of coastal and marine areas, marine environmental protection, sustainable use and conservation of high seas marine …

Addressing The Challenge Of Sustainable Development: The Need For A Global Clean Energy Treaty, Rob Fowler

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

If the main road to global environmental law began at Stockholm in 1972, it could be argued it came to an end at the neighbouring Scandinavian city of Copenhagen in 2009. Despite a return from the brink of collapse of the multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) negotiating system in relation to climate change, and possibly more widely, in Cancun in 2010 and Durban in 2011, only tentative, modest steps have been taken towards a post-Kyoto regime at these meetings. The negotiations seem destined to limp slowly forward for some years yet.

The failure of the international negotiating process to produce a …

The Clean Development Mechanism And Sustainability: Case Studies From Chile And Bolivia, Camille Parrod

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In the aftermath of the United Nations’ “Rio+20” Conference, taking place in June 2012, this paper will provide a legal analysis of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and its contribution to the concept of a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. After examining what is meant by a “green economy” when applied to the CDM, this study intends, through two case studies, to measure the CDM’s achievement of a sustainable development goal where the projects were implemented. Particularly, it will highlight the CDM’s major institutional and procedural shortcomings when it comes to achieving …

Using Law To Advance Sustainability: The Law Of Sustainable Development, Carla D. Aceves-Avila

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Sustainability and law as a social tool behold linkages that strengthen one another, although this conjunction is frail when analyzed under the typical standards and paradigm of most contemporary legal systems.

The role of law under sustainability must be carefully profiled and differentiated as compared to the rest of legal rules. Even though it is true that all legal rules are created and implemented with the main purpose of improving human interaction, the role of law oriented towards sustainability should be the protection and preservation of natural resources, elements, as well as the conditions associated to these in order to …

A Global Law Of Sustainable Energy, David Hodas

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 as the core principles and a program of action to achieve sustainable development; neither addressed energy as a central theme. In 2002, sustainable energy was a central theme at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and was addressed in detail in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. However, in 2012, neither climate change nor sustainable energy will be on Rio+20’s agenda. Ironically, 2012 is the U.N. International Year of Sustainable Energy For All. Rio+20 and the International Year are only …

Legislations And Legal Liability Of Climate Change In China, Deng Haifeng

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

There is no law directly aim at climate change in China currently. The existing rules and regulations of climate change basically include three parts: the first part is policies, such as China’s National Climate Change Program. The second part is legislations, including the contents of environmental protection, climate change, energy saving and emission reduction, which are stipulated in constitutional law, basic law of environmental protection, laws on energy utilization, specific laws of environmental protection, regulations and government rules. The last part is initiatives from civil society. These legislations of climate change stipulate relevant legal liability, including public law liability and …

Environmental Justice And The Green Economy- Risks And Opportunities, Nathalie Chalifour

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The last decade of environmental advocacy has been characterized by the application of economic principles to environmental challenges, resulting in an interest in using economic instruments to internalize environmental costs in decision-making and reflected in the growing use of concepts such as environmental valuation and resource productivity in policy choices. While many view this greater connection between economic principles and environmental decision-making as key to achieving sustainable development (eg. Keohane & Olmstead, 2007), others fear that the focus on the green economy may undermine goals of social equity and environmental justice (eg. Dobson, 1998; Langhelle, 2000; Hoedeman, 2012). This paper …

Environmental Justice In Nigeria's Oil Industry: Recognizing And Embracing Contemporary Legal Developments, Rhuks Ako

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The legal framework regulating Nigeria’s oil industry is one of the major drivers of disputes and the consequent violent conflicts in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The region has gone through different phases of peaceful and violent struggles as the indigenes of the region aim to achieve environmental justice. The amnesty initiative; the latest attempt to curb the militancy in the region that escalated the violence to new heights, is showing signs of systemic failure after a brief period of relative peace. Militancy in the region has begun to increase as attacks on oil facilities and installations are once again …

Sustainable Development And Climate Change: Challenges And Opportunities For International Law, Tanzim Afroz

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Up to recent years, international legal regime dealt with sustainable development and climate change responses as separate issues. Both the issues are covered under separate legal frameworks of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But these two issues are deeply interrelated. As for example, the capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and the associated mitigation and adaptation costs, depend critically upon the underlying development policies, which in turn significantly influences sustainable development policies and actions. The lack of coherency between developing strategies and climate strategies is intensifying climate vulnerabilities, …

Comparing U.S. And German Policies To Promote Distributed Solar Pv Growth: The Triumph Of The Feed-In Tariff, David Beugelmans

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Germany, a northern country with limited sunlight, has eight times more installed solar electricity capacity than the United States. The majority of Germany’s solar PV systems are distributed, rooftop installations owned by residential and commercial consumers. The United States, in contrast, is trending towards large, centralized utility-scale projects far from consumers and owned by major financial investors. Since 1990, Germany has employed national feed-in tariffs, requiring electric utilities to provide long term, fixed price contracts to solar installations. At the same time, the United States has employed a complex assortment of local state policies without turning to feed-in tarrifs.

This …

Global Environmental Law Post-2012: Exploring Some Lessons From Disaster And Energy Law, Mauricio Duarte Dos Santos, Carolina Dutra

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Since the Stockholm and Rio Conferences (1972 e 1992), it is evident the effort of environmental law in promoting sustainable development. But in the complex scenario of climate change, that imposes a profound impact on human life and the entire biosphere, all measures that could help address its effects are essentials. In that period, disaster and energy law has also emerged to face similar challenges: risk management; prevention and compensation; access of vulnerable groups to natural resources and services; political resistance to create and execute sustainable policies and, above all, climate mitigation and adaptation. As those fields are closer, what …

Function And Framework Of Procedure For Emerging Environmental Litigation In China, Dejin Gu

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The emerging environmental litigations play the function of responding to the incapacity and ineffectiveness of local environmental implementation and enforcement which takes place of environmental enforcement actually. The legal tool of litigation should complement environmental implementation and enforcement with innovative approach, for that, the procedural rules about standing, remedies, and judicial jurisdiction should be enacted by specific legislation.

Governance And Environmental Democracy: A Global Policy, Carla Aceves-Avila

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In legal terms, and through the late decades sustainable development has transformed from an economic development theory to a public policy obligation that in turn has also translated in practice into concrete rights and obligations in legal systems throughout the world. These rights and obligations apply both to individuals and governments through constitutional, civil, administrative, commercial and even criminal legal rules.

Environmental law has become an essential tool for governance and administration of sustainable development while environmental democracy and its elements are becoming essential for a safe and sound planetary cohabitation. Environmental democracy provides the basis for the policies and …

The Protection Of Brazilian Forests And The Effectiveness Of International Global Law, M. Luiza M. Granziera, Vladimir Garcia Magalhaes

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Brazil is a mega-diverse country and one of the largest parts of the world's forests lies within its territory. The Brazilian Forest Code, a national law that protects all kinds of vegetation, contributes significantly to the achievement of the objectives of the Conventions on Biological Diversity and Climate Changes. Currently, the rapid expansion of the agricultural frontier over the forests, mainly in the Amazon Biome and the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna species), aims towards the cultivation of soya and sugar cane. These cultures increase the profit of agrobusiness and the economic development of Brazil besides being considered sources of renewable energy. …

Environmental Compliance & Enforcement: The Role Of Access To Information And Public Participation, Claudia S. De Windt

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Good governance supports the process that links and harmonizes policies, institutions, procedures, tools, and information to empower stakeholders to make fundamental decisions, manage conflicts, seek points of consensus, and be accountable for their actions. In order to achieve good governance, public participation must be promoted; as Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration states: environmental issues are best handled with participation of all citizens, at the relevant level.^[1] Public participation has to be seen as an inclusive interaction between government and civil society, incorporating the process by which they not only open dialogue, establish partnerships, share information, but also interact …

The Arctic Crossroads: Environmental Challenges For Russia, Irina Krasnova

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Arctic region – a northern polar region of the Earth occupies an area down from the Arctic Pole and comprises the Arctic Ocean, northern parts around the Northern Pole.[1] It consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean surrounded by permafrost. The Arctic is known for its rich reserves of natural resources – oil, gas minerals, fresh water, fish, the economic significance of which is growing. Since late 19^th century the sea route named as a Northeast Passage (now the North Seaway) along the Russian Northern seashore has been used as a transportation route. Being an area where the …

Choosing New Paths At Regulatory Crossroads: Helping Regulatory Agencies To Respond To Change, Elizabeth Kirk

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Development Through A Rights Based Approach To Conserve Protected Areas In China, Miao He

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Protected areas are the world’s most effective tool for biodiversity conservation, and their role in helping mitigate and adapt to climate change is also increasingly recognized. However, neglecting internationally and domestically guaranteed rights can be a trigger for protected areas destruction. The crossroads of protected areas conservation on the one hand and human rights protection on the other is an urgent issue. A rights-based approach to conservation meets the need to better balance the human rights protection and protected areas conservation and can make an important contribution to sustainable development.

Protected areas in China, with a total surface of 1,562,257km², …

Lost In Translation: Threatened Species In Australia, Jacqueline Williams, Amanda Kennedy, Donna Craig

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Australia is currently experiencing an unprecedented expansion of mining activities into previously unaffected rural regions, encroaching lands of high environmental and agricultural value. Coal seam gas and significant underground mining of rare and precious metals also threaten surface and groundwater resources. Australia’s environmental laws are ill equipped to respond and sufficiently manage these new land-use conflicts giving rise to a greater risk of adverse environmental and social impacts. These new land-use conflicts involve very complex institutional issues in particular new players competing for scarce natural resources. The mining industry is perceived as a powerful and often government-supported player as mining …

Variations On A Theme: Ways To Tackle Diffuse Water Pollution On The Basis Of Lessons Learned, Tiina Korvela

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Baltic Sea has the dubious honour of being one of the most polluted seas in the world, partly because of industrial agriculture and eutrophication it causes via nitrogen and phosphorus loads. The ways to tackle the problem have been both manifold and unefficient: as a member state of the EU Finland has tried to meet the challenge with a variety of legal strategies. Aim of this presentation is to glance at those and ponder whether there would be more effective means to an end.^[1]

The first strategic step has been addressing on one of the main causes, nitrogen …

The Integration Of European Air Quality Standards In Spatial Planning: New Avenues For More Sustainable Urban Planning, Hendrick Schoukens

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In spite of the strict air quality standards which are imposed by the European Air Framework Directive (2008/50/EC) and its predecessors, the air quality in large parts of Western Europe remains poor. Although emissions haven fallen over the last two decades in the European Union (EU), this has not always led to a corresponding drop in pollutant concentrations in the air. This is particularly true in the case of particulate matter. As much as 20% of the urban population in the EU lives in areas where the European daily limit values for particulate matter are not met (EEA 2010 …

Sustainable Management: A Sustainable Ethic?, Trevor Daya-Winterbottom

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

New Zealand is a country rich in biodiversity and natural resources, steeped in Maori culture and indigenous values, that legislated for sustainable management under the Resource Management Act 1991. Despite the rhetoric of sustainable management, environmental law and governance in New Zealand continue to grapple with persistent challenges:

· New Zealand is a significant contributor to global biodiversity but has one of the highest species extinction rates due to continued habitat loss and invasion by pest species.

· While New Zealand has a plentiful supply of clean freshwater, water demand from agriculture and urban growth is increasing and water quality …

Curbing Deforestation In The Congo Basin With The Polluter Pays Principle, The Provider Gets Principle And The Redd+ Mechanism, Blaise-Pascal Ntirumenyerwa Mihigo

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper focuses on the possible role of the polluter pays principle, the provider gets principle and the Reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and the role of conservation, sustainable management and enhancement of carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) in the reduction of deforestation. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to efficiently implement these tools in the Congo Basin in order to curb deforestation through reducing specific driver’s factors such as small-scale subsistence farming and over logging of timber.

The FAO (2010) defines deforestation as the conversion of forest to another land use …

Conserving Our Ecosystems: The Need To Recognize A Coherent Legal System As An Important Element Of The Ecosystem Approach, Froukje Maria Platjouw

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Ecosystem Approach

The ecosystem approach, which requires a holistic and integrated approach towards an ecosystem, has been endorsed in many legal acts. At the international level, the European level and the national level, the ecosystem approach is considered an important strategy to protect our ecosystems. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the architecture and nature of environmental law and the realization of the ecosystem approach.

The term ‘environmental law’ is used in its broadest understanding, meaning not only the legal acts that have the protection of the environment as their main goal, but all …

A Remedy For Fragmented Urban Open Space- The Hannover Principles On Land Use, Paul Kibel

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The global population has become ever more urbanized since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, yet there has not been a corresponding focus of environmental law during this period on environmental issues of a particularly “urban” nature. To address this aspect, in 2010 Golden Gate University School of Law launched its Center on Urban Environmental Law (CUEL). CUEL’s inaugural project focuses on “urban greenspace”, on the opportunities to expand and improve open space and parkland holdings in cities, particularly greenspace that would be accessible to and used by low-income communities with traditionally limited access to such environmental amenities. …

Canadian Experience With Watershed Protection And Governance, Jamie Benidickson

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper will survey the status of watersheds in the Canadian legislative and regulatory framework at the federal and provincial levels. While some watershed-oriented regimes such as Conservation Authorities in the province of Ontario have been in place for a number of decades there have been numerous recent developments. These have been encouraged in part by source water protection planning as encouraged through the work of the Walkerton Inquiry and to some degree in conjunction with the Watershed Initiative of the International Joint Commission.

Notable provincial initiatives are evident in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia or are under consideration …

Environmental Law, Governance, And Management- The Need For Environmental Management Systems For Cities, Lye Lin Heng

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Human activities damage the environment. They deplete natural resources, generate pollution and wastes, accelerate the loss of forests and biological diversity, as well as threaten the water supply. As populations increase, these problems are exacerbated. Cities bear the brunt of increased human activities on limited land space with limited resources. It is therefore essential that cities adopt a system of environmental governance that will help ensure sustainability. As each city has its own mix of geographic, social, economic, political and environmental problems, it would be simplistic to suggest that there is a formula for sustainability that would fit every city. …

Rio +20: What Difference Has Two Decades Made To State Practice In The Regulation Of Invasive Species, Sophie Riley

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Invasive alien species (IAS) are alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or other species. Article 8(h) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requires the contracting parties to ‘prevent the introduction of or control or eradicate those alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species’. Members are also required to lodge national reports with the secretariat of the CBD, specifying how they are fulfilling their international obligations with respect to IAS. While the threats to biodiversity posed by IAS have been extensively documented, to date no study has examined States’ perceptions of their own IAS regimes. This paper collects and …

The Value(S) Of Biodiversity, Mathilde Boutonnet

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Biodiversity today is mainly assessed by the economy. Yet, now both natural sciences and law play a growing part in that field. Our contribution proposes to outline the main biodiversity assessment methods to understand how they are received by law as well as to question their interest and efficiency against the environment protection imperative and to understand the answers offered by the law in regards to biodiversity in terms of “value” or “monetization”.

The legal issue at stake is important as law plays its own part in granting value to biodiversity. This supposes that legal practitioners pay attention to the …