The first volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy includes an important discussion on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals that are the basis for the post-2015 development agenda up to the year 2030; the Yearbook focuses in particular on Goal 15, which includes achieving a "land degradation-neutral world." It also provides a comprehensive and highly informative overview of the latest developments at the international level, important cross-disciplinary issues and different approaches in national legislation. The book is divided into four sections. Forewords by internationally renowned academics and politicians are followed by an analysis of the content and structure of the Sustainable Development Goals with regard to soil and land as well as the scientific methods for their implementation. In addition, all relevant international regimes are discussed, including the latest developments, such as the decisions made at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The next section deals with cross-disciplinary issues relevant to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals like the right to food, land tenure, migration and the "Economics of Land Degradation" initiative. The last section gathers reports on the development of national legislation from various nations and supra-national entities, including Brazil, China, the European Union, Mongolia, Namibia and the United States. Addressing this broad range of key topics, the book offers an indispensible tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy" is a book series that discusses the central questions of law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land - at the international, national and regional level.

Offering an introduction to students on the most essential elements of EU energy law and policy, this volume will be the go-to text for those seeking knowledge of EU energy regulation and its objectives, as well as an overview of energy law. Specific topics will cover the content of sector-specific energy regulation, the application and impact of general EU law on energy markets, third party access, unbundling, investment in cross-border networks, energy trading and market supervision, the application of general EU competition law on energy markets, the impact of free movement provisions, and the application of state aid rules. A structured, step by step guide through the fundamental areas of EU energy law.

Fossil fuels will remain the backbone of the global energy economy for the foreseeable future. The contribution of nuclear energy to the global energy supply is also expected to increase. With the pressing need to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the fossil energy industry is exploring the possibility of carbon dioxide disposal in geological media. Geological disposal has been studied for decades by the nuclear industry with a view to ensuring the safe containment of its wastes. Geological disposal of carbon dioxide and that of radioactive waste gives rise to many common concerns in domains ranging from geology to public acceptance. In this respect, comparative assessments reveal many similarities, ranging from the transformation of the geological environment and safety and monitoring concerns to regulatory, liability and public acceptance issues. However, there are profound differences on a broad range of issues as well, such as the quantities and hazardous features of the materials to be disposed of, the characteristics of the targeted geological media, the site engineering technologies involved and the timescales required for safe containment at the disposal location. There are ample opportunities to learn from comparisons and to derive insights that will assist policymakers responsible for national energy strategies and international climate policies.

National institutions involved in environmental policy planning respond more to the accommodation of special interests, whether vested, parochial, or societal, than to the realities of technological advances. This situation, combined with the added problem of widespread scientific illiteracy, makes the formulation of effective environmental policy a very difficult task to accomplish.

Our politico-legal system and relationships among science, scientists, and society are explored here with specific attention to issues arising from pharmaceutical innovation and biotechnology. The identification of the resultant dilemmas reveal disenfranchisement and point to possible means of reform. Howell focuses on the need for multilateral responsibility for communication to improve the accommodation of science in policy. A truly multidisciplinary study, this book is for environmental planners as well as the interested public.

This book increases the visibility, clarity and understanding of ecological law. Ecological law is emerging as a field of law founded on systems thinking and the need to integrate ecological limits, such as planetary boundaries, into law. Presenting new thinking in the field, this book focuses on problem areas of contemporary law including environmental law, property law, trusts, legal theory and First Nations law and explains how ecological law provides solutions. Written by ecological law experts, it does this by 1) providing an overview of shortcomings of environmental law and other areas of contemporary law, 2) presenting specific examples of these shortcomings, 3) explaining what ecological law is and how it provides solutions to the shortcomings of contemporary law, and 4) showing how society can overcome some key challenges in the transition to ecological law. Drawing on a diverse range of case study examples including Indigenous law, ecological restoration and mining, this volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers of environmental and ecological law and governance, political science, environmental ethics and ecological and degrowth economics.

From the hill country in the north to the marshy lowlands in the south, Louisiana and its citizens have long enjoyed the hard-earned fruits of the oil and gas industry's labor. Economic prosperity flowed from pioneering exploration as the industry heralded engineering achievements and innovative production technologies. Those successes, however, often came at the expense of other natural resources, leading to contamination and degradation of land and water. In A Thousand Ways Denied, John T. Arnold documents the oil industry's sharp interface with Louisiana's environment. Drawing on government, corporate, and personal files, many previously untapped, he traces the history of oil-field practices and their ecological impacts in tandem with battles over regulation. Arnold reveals that in the early twentieth century, Louisiana helped lead the nation in conservation policy, instituting some of the first programs to sustain its vast wealth of natural resources. But with the proliferation of oil output, government agencies splintered between those promoting production and others committed to preventing pollution. As oil's economic and political strength grew, regulations commonly went unobserved and unenforced. Over the decades, oil, saltwater, and chemicals flowed across the ground, through natural drainages, and down waterways. Fish and wildlife fled their habitats, and drinking-water supplies were ruined. In the wetlands, drilling facilities sat like factories in the midst of a maze of interconnected canals dredged to support exploration, manufacture, and transportation of oil and gas. In later years, debates raged over the contribution of these activities to coastal land loss. Oil is an inseparable part of Louisiana's culture and politics, Arnold asserts, but the state's original vision for safeguarding its natural resources has become compromised. He urges a return to those foundational conservation principles. Otherwise, Louisiana risks the loss of viable uses of its land and, in some places, its very way of life.

Agrobiodiversity and agroecology go hand-in-hand in promoting environmental resilience in international food systems as well as climate change resilient food policy. This book contextualizes how various legal frameworks address agrobiodiversity and agroecology around the globe and makes it accessible for audiences of students, practitioners, educators, and scholars. Some chapters focus on the legal regulation of agroecology from a food law perspective. Others are geared toward providing regulators, lawmakers and attorneys with the scientific and policy background of those concepts, so that they are equipped in the field of food law in everyday practice and policy. Climate change dimensions of the issues are woven throughout the book.

When Europeans first arrived at what is now California's San Joaquin Valley, they found a vast landscape of wetlands, small ponds, riparian forests, and grasslands surrounding three large swampland lakes. What greets a visitor to the region today is a dramatically different view of mile after mile of row crops, vineyards, orchards, and grazing acreage - some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in the world. This remarkable transformation, with its enduring consequences, is at the center of Ruling the Waters, a legal, social, and environmental history of how western water law shaped, and was shaped by, the subjugation of the largest freshwater wetlands wildlife habitat in the West. At the heart of efforts to wrest arable land from the region was the Kern River, which rises in the Sierra Nevada and carries snowmelt to what was once a great network of lakes, sloughs, and marshes at the southern end of California's Central Valley. In Ruling the Waters Douglas R. Littlefield describes how, over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pioneers and entrepreneurs diverted water out of this network of waterways to extract gold in the mountains and irrigate farms lower down the river, and how the law was made to accommodate these practices. Struggles over the Kern River's water established one of the most important concepts in water law in some parts of the United States - that prior appropriation, dependent on the chronological order of diversions from waterways, could legally coexist with riparian rights, which restrict water usage to landownership directly next to a river or stream. Littlefield traces this concept to the 1886 California Supreme Court case of Lux v. Haggin - which pitted the giant farming and cattle company of Miller & Lux against a prominent land baron, James B. Haggin - and shows how the lawsuit profoundly shaped future waters issues, which in turn influenced water laws in other western states that were grappling with similar questions. Far from a dry legal history, Ruling the Waters tells a story with world-wide historical environmental ramifications, a tale of competing personalities and values and visions that forever changed both the economy and the ecology of the American West.

Re-imagines law as ecolaw. Proposes a new way to understand law, and pursues specific arguments to demonstrate the feasibility of law as ecolaw. Will appeal both to legal theorists and to others with interests in these areas.

Written by an award-winning historian of science and technology, Planet in Peril describes the top four mega-dangers facing humankind - climate change, nukes, pandemics, and artificial intelligence. It outlines the solutions that have been tried, and analyzes why they have thus far fallen short. These four existential dangers present a special kind of challenge that urgently requires planet-level responses, yet today's international institutions have so far failed to meet this need. The book lays out a realistic pathway for gradually modifying the United Nations over the coming century so that it can become more effective at coordinating global solutions to humanity's problems. Neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but pragmatic and constructive, the book explores how to move past ideological polarization and global political fragmentation. Unafraid to take intellectual risks, Planet in Peril sketches a plausible roadmap toward a safer, more democratic future for us all.

This book examines the aspects of prevention, mitigation, and management of environmental hazards and disasters from an international perspective. In light of the recent debate on climate change and the possible effects of such a change upon increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme environmental events, this publication overviews various policy and response discourses. Several case studies from various countries and world regions depicting recent experience in mitigation policy and program development and implementation and establishing links between vulnerability and mitigation are presented to provide further insights. This book is primarily intended for academics, policymakers, professionals, and practitioners in hazards reduction activities who are seeking a better understanding of the complex and dynamic aspects of nature and society.

This book discusses the law and practice of the European Union's new chemical regulatory programmes known under the acronym ''REACH'. REACH is intended to ensure the safe management of risks associated with chemical substances throughout the supply chain. Its scope is very broad; subject to limited exceptions, REACH applies to all bulk chemicals used in industrial processes and to chemicals present in products such as cleaning products, paints, clothing, furniture, and electrical appliances. The newly established European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the Commission, and member state authorities are in charge of administering the various parts of the REACH Regulation, creating a complex patchwork of government powers, procedures, and oversight. The volume is written by experienced REACH practitioners. It addresses both the key legal regulatory issues associated with REACH and the key management and practical challenges. In addition to analysing the scope, the processes, and the obligations of the industry under REACH, the book covers the strategy and management of REACH compliance from the perspective of the regulated entities. The focus is on the strategic and practical decisions facing companies subject to REACH's various regimes. Significant attention is paid to REACH consortia, which are a key instrument in compliance management, and to the competition law issues arising in connection with REACH consortia. It also covers legal remedies, enforcement, intellectual property rights, and civil liability for damages arising from chemical substances as well as how companies can shape their REACH compliance programme to reduce their liability exposure.

Environmental law expert Lowell E. Baier reveals how over centuries the federal government slowly preempted the states' authority over managing their resident wildlife. In doing so, he educates elected officials, wildlife students, and environmentalists in the precedents that led to the current state of wildlife management, and how a constructive environment can be fostered at all levels of government to improve our nation's wildlife and biodiversity.

This book details various stages in the introduction, establishment and evolution of China's environmental management system. By combining a literature review, comparative analysis, and case study, it investigates the environmental management system in several key periods in order to systematically assess the necessary measures and appropriate adjustments the Chinese Government implemented to reconcile the growing conflicts between economic development and resources conservation, in the context of rapid economic growth and economic transformation. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for experts, scholars, and government officials in related fields.

Constitutions can play a central role in responding to environmental challenges, such as pollution, biodiversity loss, lack of drinking water, and climate change. The vast majority of people on earth live under constitutional systems that protect the environment or recognize environmental rights. Such environmental constitutionalism, however, falls short without effective implementation by policymakers, advocates and jurists. Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism: Current Global Challenges explains and explores this 'implementation gap'. This collection is both broad and deep. While some of the essays analyze crosscutting themes, such as climate change and the need for rule of law that affect the implementation of environmental constitutionalism throughout the world, others delve deeply into geographically contextual experiences for lessons about how constitutional environmental law might be more effectively implemented. This volume informs global conversations about whether and how environmental constitutionalism can be made more effective to protect the natural environment.

By the end of the 1970s, contaminated sites had emerged as one of the most complex and urgent environmental issues affecting industrialized countries. The authors show that small and prosperous Switzerland is no exception to the pervasive problem of sites contamination, the legacy of past practices in waste management having left some 38,000 contaminated sites throughout the country. This book outlines the problem, offering evidence that open and polycentric environmental decision-making that includes civil society actors is valuable. They propose an understanding of environmental management of contaminated sites as a political process in which institutions frame interactions between strategic actors pursuing sometimes conflicting interests. In the opening chapter, the authors describe the influences of politics and the power relationships between actors involved in decision-making in contaminated sites management, which they term a "wicked problem." Chapter Two offers a theoretical framework for understanding institutions and the environmental management of contaminated sites. The next five chapters present a detailed case study on environmental management and contaminated sites in Switzerland, focused on the Bonfol Chemical Landfill. The study and analysis covers the establishment of the landfill under the first generation of environmental regulations, its closure and early remediation efforts, and the gambling on the remediation objectives, methods and funding in the first decade of the 21st Century. The concluding chapter discusses the question of whether the strength of environmental regulations, and the type of interactions between public, private, and civil society actors can explain the environmental choices in contaminated sites management. Drawing lessons from research, the authors debate the value of institutional flexibility for dealing with environmental issues such as contaminated sites.

Over the past twenty years considerable public attention has been focused on the decline of marine fisheries, the sustainability of world fish production, and the impacts of fishing on marine ecosystems. Many have voiced their concerns about marine conservation, as well as the sustainable and ethical consumption of fish. But are fisheries in danger of collapse? Will we soon need to find ways to replace this food system? Should we be worried that we could be fishing certain species to extinction? Can commercial fishing be carried out in a sustainable way? While overblown prognoses concerning the dire state of fisheries are plentiful, clear scientific explanations of the basic issues surrounding overfishing are less so - and there remains great confusion about the actual amount of overfishing and its ecological impact.
Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know(r) will provide a balanced explanation of the broad issues associated with overfishing. Guiding readers through the scientific, political, economic, and ethical issues associated with harvesting fish from the ocean, it will provide answers to questions about which fisheries are sustainably managed and which are not. Ray and Ulrike Hilborn address topics including historical overfishing, high seas fisheries, recreational fisheries, illegal fishing, climate and fisheries, trawling, economic and biological overfishing, and marine protected areas. In order to illustrate the effects of each of these issues, they will incorporate case studies of different species of fish.
Overall, the authors present a hopeful view of the future of fisheries. Most of the world's fisheries are not overfished, and many once overfished stocks are now rebuilding. In fact, we can learn from the management failures and successes to ensure that fisheries are sustainable and contribute to national wealth and food security. Concise and clear, this book presents a compelling "big picture" of the state of oceans and the solutions to ending overfishing.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

This is a global survey and assessment of the structure, evolution, and performance of water institutions administration policies and regulatory practices in regional, national, and international settings. The coverage includes analysis and discussion of the rationale for institutional innovations, based on case study findings; specific suggestions for sustainable institutional design; and recommendations for implementing institutional reforms.

The development of U.S. urban transportation policy over the past half-century illustrates the changing relationships among federal, state, and local governments. This comprehensive text examines the evolution of urban transportation planning from early developments in highway planning in the 1930s to today's concerns over sustainable development, security, and pollution control. Highlighting major national events, the book examines the influence of legislation, regulations, conferences, federal programs, and advances in planning procedures and technology. The volume provides in-depth coverage of the most significant event in transportation planning, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which created a federal mandate for a comprehensive urban transportation planning process, carried out cooperatively by states and local governments with federal funding. Claiming that urban transportation planning is more sophisticated, costly, and complex than its highway and transit planning predecessors, the book demonstrates how urban transportation planning evolved in response to changes in such factors as the environment, energy, development patterns, intergovernmental coordination, and federal transit programs. This updated, revised, and expanded edition features two new chapters on global climate change and managing under conditions of constrained resources, and covers the impact of the most recent legislation, 50 years after the Highway Act of 1962, emphasizing such timely issues as security, oil dependence, performance measurement, and public-private sector collaboration.

This book focuses on innovative treatment technologies for the elimination of emerging contaminants in wastewater and drinking water treatment processes. The book also discusses sources and occurrence of emerging contaminants in municipal and industrial waste, giving an overview of state-of-the-art analytical methods for their identification. Further important aspects covered include the acute and chronic effects and overall impact of emerging contaminants on the environment.

The European Union is poised to establish a genuine European Energy Union with the new powers conferred on it by the Lisbon Treaty. Since 2014, it has been developing and implementing an energy strategy that responds to the three overarching priorities of climate change, political security, and economic competitiveness by 2030. The European Energy Union aims to provide secure, sustainable and affordable energy throughout the cycle of production, transport and consumption. This book outlines the legal regime underpinning this regulatory strategy, which integrates EU law with international law and with the law of the member states and affiliated states. It analyses and explains the increasing interaction between these legal orders in achieving the shared objective of transforming the European and global energy systems. This book will appeal to scholars and students of energy law and policy at both European and international levels.

The Ecological Constitution integrates the insights of environmental constitutionalism and ecological law in a concise, engaging and accessible manner. This book sets out the necessary components of any constitution that could be considered "ecological" in nature. In particular, it argues that an ecological constitution is one that codifies the following key principles, at a minimum: the principle of sustainability; intergenerational equity and the public trust doctrine; environmental human rights; rights of nature; the precautionary principle and non-regression; and rights and obligations relating to a healthy climate. In the context of the global environmental crisis that characterises the current Anthropocene era, these principles are important tools for changing consciousness and driving pragmatic policy reforms around the world. Re-imagining constitutions along these lines could play a vital role in the collective project of building a sustainable future for humans, animals, ecosystems and the biosphere we all share. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, ecological law, environmental constitutionalism, sustainability and rights of nature.

The fourth edition of Housing Policy in the United States refreshes its classic, foundational coverage of the field with new data, analysis, and comparative focus. This landmark volume offers a broad overview that synthesizes a wide range of material to highlight the significant problems, concepts, programs and debates that all defi ne the aims, challenges, and milestones within and involving housing policy. Expanded discussion in this edition centers on state and local activity to produce and preserve affordable housing, the impact and the implications of reduced fi nancial incentives for homeowners. Other features of this new edition include: * Analysis of the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on housing- related tax expenditures; * Review of the state of fair housing programs in the wake of the Trump Administration's rollback of several key programs and policies; * Cross- examination of U.S. housing policy and conditions in an international context. Featuring the latest available data on housing patterns and conditions, this is an excellent companion for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in urban studies, urban planning, sociology and social policy, and housing policy.