Law Commons^™

International Climate Negotiations: Opportunities And Challenges For The Obama Administration, David Hunter

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article is a discussion of the international dimensions of climate change policy facing the newly-elected Obama Administration, focusing on the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent Bali Road Map and Bali Action Plan. The Bali Action Plan set out a framework for negotiating a post-Kyoto agreement with binding commitments on all parties. The agreement is due to be finalized at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009, leaving the Obama Administration less than a year to shape its international climate policy and promote that policy effectively in the international negotiations.

The article addresses …

Combating Global Climate Change: Why A Carbon Tax Is A Better Response To Global Warming Than Cap And Trade, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

Global climate change is the most significant environmental issue facing our nation and the world. There no longer is any question that global warming is occurring. Nor is there any serious debate about whether human activity is the root cause. If we fail to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the next ten to twenty years, we face the possibility of catastrophic environmental harm by the end of this century.

The Costs Of Carbon: Examining The Competitiveness And International Trade Dimensions Of The Waxman-Markey House Bill, Svetlana German

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

As the United States considers unilateral climate change action, uncertainty exists as to the compatibility of the proposed trade related measures to global warming. This paper considers the rationale behind any trade measures designed to address competitiveness and carbon leakage following the introduction of unilateral climate change legislation (Part I). The paper then assesses the international legality of the proposed measures in the Waxman-Markey Bill under World Trade Organisation (WTO) law (Part II) and proposes alternative mechanisms that may yield economically sound solutions while remaining mindful of equitable principles (Part III).

International Executive Agreements On Climate Change, Hannah Chang

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The difficulty of ratifying any future climate change agreement through the Article II treaty process calls for an understanding of the scope of the President’s independent power to enter into internationally binding commitments related to climate change. This power is necessarily limited, but as this paper shows, the President’s foreign affairs powers, together with authority derived from existing treaty obligations and federal statutes, provide legal authority for the President to enter executive agreements relating to measurement, reporting, and verification; aviation emissions; cooperative research and development in science and technology; and capacity-building for developing countries.