Building on the previously established Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000-2015, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the UN with a roadmap for development until 2030. This topical book explores the associated legal and normative implications of these SDGs, which in themselves are not legally binding. The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs cover areas as crucial as poverty reduction, climate change, clean water and access to justice. Combining both thematic and goal-specific analysis, expert contributors establish the relevance not just of international law, but also of a broader range of normative frameworks including constitutional norms, domestic regulatory law and human rights. Connecting the SDGs to wider debates in international law and politics, this book ultimately demonstrates that law has an important constitutive and instrumental role to play in both implemention and analysis. The first of its kind to offer a specific focus on the relationship between law and the SDGs, this much-needed book will prove invaluable for scholars in the field of international sustainable development. Its insightful observations will also provide food for thought for both related international organizations and national government officials. Contributors include: S. Adelman, H. Aust, M. Barnard, L. Collins, N. Cooper, A. du Plessis, D. French, L. Kotze, G. Long, O. McIntyre , K. Morrow, N. Sanchez Castillo-Winckels, W. Scholtz, N. Soininen

This book provides a comprehensive and up to date comparative study of the management and resolution of conflicts between conservation and recreation in protected areas in the US and China. Competing claims on the use of nature, increasing regulation of land use and recreational activities, and the conflicting goals between conservation and development have led to a rise in conflicts in the designation and management of protected areas. How to effectively manage and resolve these conflicts has become a challenge for both legislators and managers. By adopting an institutional dimension in legal interpretation, this book critically examines how such conflicts are dealt with in the legal regimes of the US and China while exploring interactions between legislatures, agencies and courts. The book searches for a plausible solution to improve the legal framework of protected areas in China by emulating pertinent mechanisms developed in the US, whilst also presenting legal and policy recommendations to the US. This informative book will be useful for legal scholars in Chinese law, nature conservation law, administrative law and comparative law.

This book deals with international guidelines relating to the protection of the Ozone Layer, endangered species and World Heritage sites. The most successful convention (CITES) is described as well as the Montreal Protocol. Institutional mechanisms required for sustainable development of the environment are also covered to provide an integrated framework for conserving and developing such resources.

Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on climate change, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, human rights and human security. Via detailed examination of recent law and policy initiatives from around the world, and making use of a capability approach, Rosemary Lyster develops a unique approach to human and non-human climate justice and its application to all stages of a disaster: prevention; response, recovery and rebuilding; and compensation and risk transfer. She comprehensively analyses the complexities of climate science and their interfaces with the law- and policy-making processes, and also provides an in-depth analysis of multilateral climate change negotiations under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Offering a detailed account of the various legal arrangements at European Union level, this book is an ideal reference tool for practitioners and legal scholars. As well as examining the principal sources of EU environmental law enforcement, it also contributes to the legal and political debates that surround the subject. Spanning three parts, the author examines the practical impact of the legal arrangements at Union level that are used to uphold EU environmental norms. Offering a comprehensive account of the current state of EU environmental law enforcement and the developments affecting it, Martin Hedemann-Robinson explores the role of the European Commission, the possibilities for private law enforcement, and the responsibilities of member state national authorities. Key legal developments that have occurred since the first edition have been incorporated, including new statutory developments and case law. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty on foundational EU treaty provisions enabling the European Commission to take legal action against EU member states infringing Union environmental law, the establishment of a new legal architecture at Union level on the topic of environmental criminal policy, as well as increased EU legislative intervention in the area of environmental inspections. The impact of the 1998 Arhus Convention on EU environmental law enforcement is also addressed in detail, including the influence of recommendations of the Arhus Convention's Compliance Committee.

Future generations, wildlife, and natural resources - collectively referred to as 'the voiceless' in this work - are the most vulnerable and least equipped populations to protect themselves from the impacts of global climate change. While domestic and international law protections are beginning to recognize rights and responsibilities that apply to the voiceless community, these legal developments have yet to be pursued in a collective manner and have not been considered together in the context of climate change and climate justice. In Climate Change and the Voiceless, Randall S. Abate identifies the common vulnerabilities of the voiceless in the Anthropocene era and demonstrates how the law, by incorporating principles of sustainable development, can evolve to protect their interests more effectively. This work should be read by anyone interested in how the law can be employed to mitigate the effects of climate change on those who stand to lose the most.

Why do people obey the law? And why do states abide by their international commitments? These are among the questions raised in this important book. The setting is the Barents Sea, home to some of the most productive fishing grounds on the planet, including the world's largest cod stock. Norway and Russia manage these fish resources together, in what appears to be a successful exception to the rule of failed fisheries management: stocks are in good shape, institutional cooperation is expanding and takes place in a constructive atmosphere. The author argues that post-agreement bargaining helps activate norms and establish standard operating procedure that furthers precautionary fisheries management. The Barents Sea fishery is seen as one of the best-managed international fisheries in the world, and the book specifically enquires into the lessons to be learned from the Norwegian-Russian partnership. It will therefore prove to be of invaluable interest to practitioners, scholars and policy makers working in the field of fisheries management and environmental agreements.

As climate change begins to take a serious toll on the planet--with much more damage yet to come--a solution to our warming problems is hiding in plain sight. We need to commit to de-carbonizing our economy, and do so immediately, but so far we have lacked the courage to really try. Our fears of nuclear energy have grown irrationally large, even as our fears of climate change are irrationally small. In this clear-sighted and compelling book, Joshua Goldstein and Steffan Qvist come bearing good news: a real solution, one that is fast, cheap, and provably works. Based on Sweden's success cutting their carbon emissions in half, Goldstein and Qvist argue for a policy that combines nuclear and renewable energy sources. From 1970-1990, Sweden replaced coal power plants with nuclear ones, and slowly integrated renewable energy alongside it. During that same time period, the country generated more electricity than ever and its economy grew by 50 percent. They have had no nuclear accidents, nor has any of their uranium been stolen by terrorists. Separating facts from doomsday scenarios, Goldstein and Qvist force a real and meaningful dialogue about what the best energy policy is, and the dangers of remaining on our present path. And they offer an answer that really could work--if only we'd give it a try.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date volume on environmental analysis available today, this is the standard laboratory reference for any environmental or chemical engineer, chemist, or scientist. Today, environmental issues are a great cause of concern at the global level, and universities and other institutions around the world are involved in research on climate change, deforestation, pollution control, and many other issues. Moreover, environmental science and environmental biotechnology are inherent parts of various courses while some universities provide degrees in these fields. Although the environment perspective of water is discussed time and again in research, academic, and non-academic discussions, there is no book summarizing protocols involved in water quality analysis. The information seems to be sporadically distributed on the internet. Even if available at all, the information does not discuss limits of the protocols or caveats involved. For example, essays on chemical oxygen demand (COD) on the internet mostly do not discuss differences between organic compounds of biological origin and aliphatic/aromatic. The authors have performed nearly all the protocols mentioned in this new volume, and their protocols are discussed in a simplified, easy-to-understand manner. The book has been written after elaborative discussions with and input from faculty and research students to ensure the clarity of the material for use on many levels. Further, the authors have emphasized low-cost methods which involve minimal use of high-end instrumentation keeping in mind limitations faced in developing countries. A valuable reference for engineers, scientists, chemists, and students, this volume is applicable to many different fields, across many different industries, at all levels. It is a must-have for any library.

Ecological degradation has been an object of concern for the international community since the early 1970s, but legal approaches that have been employed to improve the protection of ecosystems have failed to halt this decline. Ecological Governance explores how the law should respond to this rapid global deterioration of ecosystems by examining the foundational scientific and ethical considerations for designing laws that are effective for ecological protection. Based on these analyses, it argues that developed states should prioritise the reduction of the ecological stresses for which they are responsible in decision-making on their future courses. The author also proposes structures for governance and associated legal frameworks that would enable the formulation and implementation of policies for ecological sustainability.

Climate and energy policy needs to be durable and flexible to be successful, but these two concepts often seem to be in opposition. One venerable institution where both ideas are apparent is the Clean Air Act, first passed by the United States Congress in 1963, with amendments in 1970 and 1990. The Act is a living institution that has been hugely successful in improving the environment. It has programs that reach across the entire economy, regulating various sectors and pollutants in different ways. This illuminating book examines these successes - and failures - with the aim to offer lessons for future climate and energy policymaking in the US at the federal and state level. It provides critical information to legislators, regulators, and scholars interested in understanding environmental policymaking.

This book deals with the subject of environmental guidelines in more primitive and generalistic terms, indicating its universal applicability as umbrella frameworks. The focus starts from the protection of human environment in the form of Stockholm Conference, mainly to provide a solid base for future development and orientation. It also underlines the fact that the Rio Summit focussed attention on the environment, spawning a host of other conventions collectively called Rio Agreements. The Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development and the economic and social dimensions of Agenda 21 on general issues is also included.

The unprecedented degradation of the planet's vital ecosystems is among the most pressing issues confronting the international community. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat environmental problems, conflicts between rich and poor nations (the North-South divide) have compromised international environmental law, leading to deadlocks in environmental treaty negotiations and noncompliance with existing agreements. This volume examines both the historical origins of the North-South divide in European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations in a range of issues including food justice, energy justice, indigenous rights, trade, investment, extractive industries, human rights, land grabs, hazardous waste, and climate change. Born out of the recognition that global inequality and profligate consumerism present threats to a sustainable planet, this book makes a unique contribution to international environmental law by emphasizing the priorities and perspectives of the global South.

Attending to the 'Cry of the Earth' requires a critical appraisal of how we conceive our relationship with the environment, and a clear vision of how to apprehend it in law and governance. Addressing questions of participation, responsibility and justice, this collective endeavour includes marginalised and critical voices, featuring contributions by leading practitioners and thinkers in Indigenous law, traditional knowledge, wild law, the rights of nature, theology, public policy and environmental humanities.Such voices play a decisive role in comprehending and responding to current global challenges. They invite us to broaden our horizon of meaning and action, modes of knowing and being in the world, and envision the path ahead with a new legal consciousness. A valuable reference for students, researchers and practitioners, this book is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

While the environmental performance of most ASEAN member states is above the world average, ASEAN nations will continue to face growing environmental challenges due to pressures exerted on them such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization. The authors of this book look at how the member states of ASEAN employ law as a means of regional integration within the context of environmental conservation. While the goal of new laws is to implement sustainable development, it continues to be an ongoing adaptive process, since clear and immediate answers to environmental challenges are rarely available. Readers of this book will gain a clear idea of the evolving cooperation for sustainability within ASEAN at regional and global levels, and the areas of focus for the future. The book will be of interest to policy and decision makers, as well as environmental organizations and academics in the field.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an increasingly prominent role in addressing global development challenges. United Nations agencies and other organizations are relying on PPPs to improve global health, facilitate access to scientific information, and encourage the diffusion of climate change technologies. For this reason, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights their centrality in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time, the intellectual property dimensions and implications of these efforts remain under-examined. Through selective case studies, this illuminating work contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between PPPs and intellectual property considered within a global knowledge governance framework, that includes innovation, capacity-building, technological learning, and diffusion. Linking global governance of knowledge via intellectual property to the SDGs, this is the first book to chart the activities of PPPs at this important nexus.

Rising seas are endangering the habitability and very existence of several small island nations, mostly in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This is the first book to focus on the myriad legal issues posed by this tragic situation: If a nation is under water, is it still a state? Does it still have a seat at the United Nations? What becomes of its exclusive economic zone, the basis for its fishing rights? What obligations do other nations have to take in the displaced populations, and what are these peoples' rights and legal status once they arrive? Should there be a new international agreement on climate-displaced populations? Do these nations and their citizens have any legal recourse for compensation? Are there any courts that will hear their claims, and based on what theories? Leading legal scholars from around the world address these novel questions and propose answers.

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.

More than 300 million people in over 70 countries make up the world's indigenous populations. Yet despite ever-growing pressures on their lands, environment and way of life through outside factors such as climate change and globalization, their rights in these and other respects are still not fully recognized in international law.In this incisive book, Laura Westra deftly reveals the lethal effects that damage to ecological integrity can have on communities. Using examples in national and international case law, she demonstrates how their lack of sufficient legal rights leaves indigenous peoples defenseless, time and again, in the face of governments and businesses who have little effective incentive to consult with them (let alone gain their consent) in going ahead with relocations, mining plans and more. The historical background and current legal instruments are discussed and, through examples from the Americas, Africa, Oceania and the special case of the Arctic, a picture emerges of how things must change if indigenous communities are to survive.It is a warning to us all from the example of those who live most closely in tune with nature and are the first to feel the impact when environmental damage goes unchecked.

Several disturbing issues pose a threat to the marine environment and its wellbeing, among them marine environmental pollution and degradation of marine biodiversity. Most troubling is that these issues are overwhelmingly caused by human activities which are sometimes transboundary, and their consequences will become more severe and complicated if not properly curbed. Thus, these activities require comprehensive policies, laws, and principles to manage them effectively. Linked to these solutions is the need for responsibilities, cooperation and commitments at local, national, regional and international levels. Contemporary Marine Environmental Law and Policy presents a thorough appraisal of the main issues, actors and institutions engaged in the legal aspects of marine environmental conservation. With contributions from an international range of authors, the book provides a concise account of the legal and policy framework underlying international marine environmental issues, and of the fundamental concepts and strategies that are important to the protection of the marine environment. Some of the topics explored include: the prevention of marine pollution caused by land based activities, ships, and offshore hydrocarbon and mineral resources exploration; the conservation and management of marine living resources; the marine environment in the polar regions; and the settlement of marine environmental disputes. This book provides a solid foundation for anyone studying International Environmental Law and the Law of the Sea. It will also appeal to anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of this hugely important subject.

The present study seeks to examine the genesis, development, and proliferation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) - in-built law-making mechanisms and processes of institutionalization - and their ad hoc treaty-based status and the issue of the legal personality of their secretariats. It provides legal understanding of the location of MEA secretariats within an existing international host institution, as well as discussion of the issue of relationship agreements and interpretation of the commonly used language that triggers such relationships. It places under scrutiny the standard MEA phrase 'providing a secretariat', delegation of authority by the host institution to the head of the convention secretariat, possible conflict areas, host country agreement, and the workings of the relationship agreements. The book offers an authoritative account of the growing phenomenon in which an existing international institution provides a servicing base for MEA that, in turn, triggers a chain of legal implications involving the secretariat, the host institution, and the host country.

This book addresses the diverse ways in which international law governs the uses, management, and protection of fresh water. The regulation of fresh water has primarily developed through the conclusion of treaties concerning international watercourses, yet a number of other legal regimes also apply to the governance of fresh water. In particular, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of fresh water to environmental protection. The development of international human rights law and international humanitarian law has also proven crucial for ensuring the sound and equitable management of this resource. In addition, the economic uses of fresh water feature prominently in the law applicable to watercourses, while water itself has become an important element of the trade and investment regimes. These bodies of rules and principles not only surface in an array of dispute settlement mechanisms, but also stimulate wider trends of institutionalization. Since the publication of the first edition of this volume in 2013, water has continued to be at the forefront of the international agenda, and the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals constitutes a milestone around which various public and private initiatives have been launched. This book presents and appraises these important developments as part of its comprehensive analysis of the origin and scope of the various areas of international law as they apply to fresh water. It demonstrates how these areas connect and adapt to one another, forming an integrated body of international principles.

In the 1990s and mid-2000s, turbulent political and social protests surrounded the issue of private sector involvement in providing urban water services in both the developed and developing world. Water on Tap explores examples of such conflicts in six national settings (France, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand), focusing on a central question: how were rights and regulation mobilized to address the demands of redistribution and recognition? Two modes of governance emerged: managed liberalization and participatory democracy, often in hybrid forms that complicated simple oppositions between public and private, commodity and human right. The case studies examine the effects of transnational and domestic regulatory frameworks shaping the provision of urban water services, bilateral investment treaties and the contributions of non-state actors such as transnational corporations, civil society organisations and social movement activists. The conceptual framework developed can be applied to a wide range of transnational governance contexts.

This book is the first comprehensive and authoritative translation into English of national and international laws of Russia that relate to the Arctic from the early 19th century to the present, revealing the historical and current context of sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction across nearly half of the north polar region. The Russian original version was coordinated by Igor Sergeyevich Ivanov, former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation and currently the President of the Russian International Affairs Council.This unique translation complements all legal, geopolitical and governance analyses of the Arctic as a primary source of information, without interpretation or bias. The Baseline of Russian Arctic Laws is a treasure trove for diplomats, scholars and students who are involved with the international environmental, economic and societal dynamics of the Arctic, balancing national interests and common interests to achieve sustainability of the high north for the benefit of all across generations in our globally-interconnected civilization.

The international legal framework for valuing the carbon stored in forests, known as 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' (REDD+), will have a major impact on indigenous peoples and forest communities. The REDD+ regime contains many assumptions about the identity, tenure and rights of indigenous and local communities who inhabit, use or claim rights to forested lands. The authors bring together expert analysis of public international law, climate change treaties, property law, human rights and indigenous customary land tenure to provide a systemic account of the laws governing forest carbon sequestration and their interaction. Their work covers recent developments in climate change law, including the Agreement from the Conference of the Parties in Paris that came into force in 2016. The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities is a rich and much-needed contribution to contemporary understanding of this topic.