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Climate Change, Forests, And International Law: Redd's Descent Into Irrelevance, Annecoos Wiersema Mar 2013

Climate Change, Forests, And International Law: Redd's Descent Into Irrelevance, Annecoos Wiersema

Annecoos Wiersema

Forestry activities account for over 17% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2005, parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change have been negotiating a mechanism known as REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation – to provide an incentive for developing countries to reduce carbon emissions and limit deforestation at the same time. Many believe this mechanism will not only mitigate climate change but will also provide biodiversity and forests with the hard international law regime that has so far been missing. These commentators assume REDD will develop into this kind of hard international law regime. They …


The New International Law-Makers? Conferences Of The Parties To Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Annecoos Wiersema Mar 2009

The New International Law-Makers? Conferences Of The Parties To Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Annecoos Wiersema

Annecoos Wiersema

What do Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to multilateral environmental agreements contribute to international legal obligation? Much of the activity of COPs does not require the consent of every state party to the treaty to come into effect and does not provide for any form of opt-out for dissenting states; nevertheless, COPs frequently pass agreements that alter the application and scope of their treaties. This article discusses the significance of this activity – what I term consensus-based COP activity – for our understanding of the international legal system and its touchstone of state consent. Conventional categories for the sources of …