Shannon O'Lear brings a geographer's perspective to environmental politics. The book considers issues of climate change, energy, food security, toxins, waste, and resource conflict to explore how political, economic, ideological and military power have contributed to the generation of environmental issues and the formation of dominant narratives about them. The book encourages the reader to think critically about the power dynamics that shape (and limit) how we think about environmental issues and to expand the reader's understanding of why it matters that these issues are discussed at particular spatial scales. Applying a geographer's sense of scale and power leads to a better understanding of the complexity of environmental issues and will help formulate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The book will appeal mainly to advanced students and researchers from a geography background, but also to social and political scientists who wish to look at the topic from this different perspective.

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.

An assessment of policy options for future global climate governance, written by a team of leading experts from the European Union and developing countries. Global climate governance is at a crossroads. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol was merely a first step, and its core commitments expire in 2012. This book addresses three questions which will be central to any new climate agreement. What is the most effective overall legal and institutional architecture for successful and equitable climate politics? What role should non-state actors play, including multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, public private partnerships and market mechanisms in general? How can we deal with the growing challenge of adapting our existing institutions to a substantially warmer world? This important resource offers policy practitioners in-depth qualitative and quantitative assessments of the costs and benefits of various policy options, and also offers academics from wide-ranging disciplines insight into innovative interdisciplinary approaches towards international climate negotiations.

This book reveals the many harms which flow across the ever-more porous sovereign borders of a globalising world. These harms expose weaknesses in the international legal regime built on sovereignty of nation states. Using the Trail Smelter Arbitration, one of the most cited cases in international environmental law, this book explores the changing nature of state responses to transboundary harm. Taking a critical approach, the book examines the arbitration's influence on international law generally, and international environmental law specifically. In particular, the book explores whether there are lessons from Trail Smelter that are useful for resolving transboundary challenges confronting the international community. The book collects the commentary of a distinguished set of international law scholars who consider the history of the Trail Smelter arbitration, its significance for international environmental law, its broader relationship to international law, and its resonance in fields beyond the environment.

An unbiased and comprehensive overview, based on the findings of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Using no jargon, it looks at tackling and adapting to man-made climate change, and works through the often confusing potential solutions. Bert Metz is the former co-chair of the IPCC, at the center of international climate change negotiations. His insider expertise provides a cutting edge assessment of issues at the top of the political agenda. He leads the reader succinctly through ambitious mitigation scenarios, in combination with adapting our future societies to different climate conditions and the potential costs of these measures. Illustrations and extensive boxed examples motivate students to engage with this essential global debate, and questions for each chapter are available online for course instructors. Minimal technical language also makes this book valuable to anyone with an interest in action to combat climate change.

This work investigates law as an instrument to deal with the challenges of sea level rise. As the two countries chosen as examples differ significantly in their adaptation strategies and the corresponding legal regulations, the author presents general ideas on how any legal framework facing similar challenges could be improved. In particular, (flood) risk assessments, coastal defences and flood-resistant design as well as spatial and land use planning are discussed, including managed retreat. Moreover, conflicts as well as potential synergies of coastal adaptation and nature conservation are examined.Due to the thorough analysis this book is not just an essential read for policymakers and researchers interested in the coastal area but climate change adaptation in general as many general findings are transferrable to other impacts.

Governing Arctic Seas introduces the concept of ecopolitical regions, using in-depth analyses of the Bering Strait and Barents Sea Regions to demonstrate how integrating the natural sciences, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge can reveal patterns, trends and processes as the basis for informed decisionmaking. This book draws on international, interdisciplinary and inclusive (holistic) perspectives to analyze governance mechanisms, built infrastructure and their coupling to achieve sustainability in biophysical regions subject to shared authority. Governing Arctic Seas is the first volume in a series of books on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability that apply, train and refine science diplomacy to address transboundary issues at scales ranging from local to global. For nations and peoples as well as those dealing with global concerns, this holistic process operates across a 'continuum of urgencies' from security time scales (mitigating risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are immediate) to sustainability time scales (balancing economic prosperity, environmental protection and societal well-being across generations). Informed decisionmaking is the apex goal, starting with questions that generate data as stages of research, integrating decisionmaking institutions to employ evidence to reveal options (without advocacy) that contribute to informed decisions. The first volumes in the series focus on the Arctic, revealing legal, economic, environmental and societal lessons with accelerating knowledge co-production to achieve progress with sustainability in this globally-relevant region that is undergoing an environmental state change in the sea and on land. Across all volumes, there is triangulation to integrate research, education and leadership as well as science, technology and innovation to elaborate the theory, methods and skills of informed decisionmaking to build common interests for the benefit of all on Earth.

International environmental law has come of age, yet the global environment continues to deteriorate. The challenge of the twenty-first century is to reverse this process by ensuring that governments comply fully with their obligations, and progressively assume stricter duties to preserve the environment. This book is the first comprehensive examination of international environmental litigation. Analysing the spectrum of adjudicative bodies that are engaged in the resolution of environmental disputes, it offers a reappraisal of their relevance in contemporary contexts. The book critiques the contribution that arbitral awards and judicial decisions have made to the development of environmental law, and considers the looming challenges for international litigation. With its unique combination of scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this work is especially relevant to an era in which environmental matters are increasingly being brought before international jurisdictions, and will be of great interest to students and scholars engaged with this vital field.

The aim of this short text is simply to introduce a reader to this topic. It is intended for a global audience and rather than being restricted to potential energy law students of a particular country. It is also written for students of other disciplines such as geographers, social scientists and engineers. It should also be engaging to those in a variety of professional practices who want an accessible background to and overview of the subject. The first edition of Energy Law: An Introduction was a great success and this extended second edition is expected to be just as successful. It is used widely as a core text in energy law courses across the world and this second issue adds further discussion on important topics such as energy law principles and drivers. Further, it highlights issues of energy justice, a growing and an emergent topic which is also at the core of the energy law principles and the key drivers of why new energy law is formulated. The text aims to outline the principles and central logic behind energy law. Therefore, readers from across the world should be able to use it as a guide to thinking about energy law in their own countries. A variety of examples from many different countries are included in the text and while examples and comparisons are mainly from the EU and US, they represent good examples of more advanced and innovative energy law. For those readers who seek further or more in-depth knowledge, this text will only serve as an introduction. However, a key focus of the book is to direct the reader where they to look for further information and within the book there are suggested extra readings, the key recommended journals to read and other sources of information based on institutions who publish further material in this area. Overall this second edition of Energy Law: An Introduction aims to inspire students and others to contribute to try and improve energy law across the world and enable us all to contribute in our own small way to delivering a just and sustainable energy world for future generations.

This book presents an argument for environmental human rights as the basis of intergenerational environmental justice. It argues that the rights to clean air, water, and soil should be seen as the environmental human rights of both present and future generations. It presents several new conceptualizations central to the development of theories of both human rights and justice, including emergent human rights, reflexive reciprocity as the foundation of justice, and a communitarian foundation for human rights that both protects the rights of future generations and makes possible an international consensus on human rights, beginning with environmental human rights. In the process of making the case for environmental human rights, the book surveys and contributes to the entire fields of human rights theory and environmental justice.

Through a detailed analysis this book examines the role of law in European Union integration processes through the implementation of the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control at European Level and in the UK and Germany. The book questions traditional conceptions which perceive law as the 'formal law in the books', as instrumental and as relatively autonomous in relation to its social contexts. The book also discusses in depth how the key legal obligation on the Directive, to employ 'the best available techniques', is actually implemented. This research locates the analysis of the implementation of the IPPC Directive in the wider context of current, cutting-edge political science and sociology of law debates about the role of law in EU integration processes, the nature of EU law, new modes of governance and the significance of 'law in action' for understanding legal process.

Sometimes solving climate change seems impossibly complex, and it is hard to know what changes we all can and should make to help. This book offers hope. Drawing on the latest research, Mark Jaccard shows us how to recognize the absolutely essential actions (decarbonizing electricity and transport) and policies (regulations that phase out coal plants and gasoline vehicles, carbon tariffs). Rather than feeling paralyzed and pursuing ineffective efforts, we can all make a few key changes in our lifestyles to reduce emissions, to contribute to the urgently needed affordable energy transition in developed and developing countries. More importantly, Jaccard shows how to distinguish climate-sincere from insincere politicians and increase the chance of electing and sustaining these leaders in power. In combining the personal and the political, The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success offers a clear and simple strategic path to solving the greatest problem of our times. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The central idea animating environmental impact assessment (EIA) is that decisions affecting the environment should be made through a comprehensive evaluation of predicted impacts. Notwithstanding their evaluative mandate, EIA processes do not impose specific environmental standards, but rely on the creation of open, participatory and information rich decision-making settings to bring about environmentally benign outcomes. In light of this tension between process and substance, Neil Craik assesses whether EIA, as a method of implementing international environmental law, is a sound policy strategy, and how international EIA commitments structure transnational interactions in order to influence decisions affecting the international environment. Through a comprehensive description of international EIA commitments and their implementation with domestic and transnational governance structures, and drawing on specific examples of transnational EIA processes, the author examines how international EIA commitments can facilitate interest coordination, and provide opportunities for persuasion and for the internalisation of international environmental norms.

The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Research Studies' third colloquium of 2005 brought together more than 130 experts from 27 nations on nearly every continent. This book brings together a number of the papers presented there and offers a global perspective on biodiversity conservation and the maintenance of sustainable cultures. It addresses issues from international, regional, and country-specific perspectives. The book is organized thematically to present a broad spectrum of issues, including the history and major governance structures in this area; the needs, problems, and prerequisites for biodiversity; area-based, species-based, and ecosystem-based conservation measures; the use of components of biodiversity and the processes affecting it; biosecurity; and access to and sharing of benefits from components of biodiversity and their economic value.

Wild Law - In Practice aims to facilitate the transition of Earth Jurisprudence from theory into practice. Earth Jurisprudence is an emerging philosophy of law, coined by cultural historian and geologian Thomas Berry. It seeks to analyse the contribution of law in constructing, maintaining and perpetuating anthropocentrism and addresses the ways in which this orientation can be undermined and ultimately eliminated. In place of anthropocentrism, Earth Jurisprudence advocates an interpretation of law based on the ecocentric concept of an Earth community that includes both human and nonhuman entities. Addressing topics that include a critique of the effectiveness of environmental law in protecting the environment, developments in domestic/constitutional law recognising the rights of nature, and the regulation of sustainability, Wild Law - In Practice is the first book to focus specifically on the practical legal implications of Earth Jurisprudence.

This 2007 book examines environmental law from a range of perspectives, emphasising the policy world from which environmental law is drawn and nourished. Those working within the discipline of environmental law need to engage with concepts and methods employed by disciplines other than law. The authors analyse the ways in which legal activities are supported and legitimated by work in traditional scientific or technical domains, as well as by certain more obscure but also influential cultural or philosophical assumptions. A range of regulatory techniques is explored in this book, through a close examination of both pollution control and land use. The highly complex nature of current environmental problems, demanding sophisticated and responsive legal controls, is illustrated by several in-depth case studies, including legal and policy analysis of the highly contested issues of genetically modified organisms and renewable energy projects.

This 2007 book surveys the global experience to date in implementing land-use policies that move us further along the sustainable development continuum. The international community has long recognized the need to ensure ongoing and future development is conducted sustainably. While high-level commitments towards sustainable development such as those included in the Rio and Johannesburg Declarations are politically important, they are irrelevant if they are not translated into reality on the ground. This book includes chapters that discuss the challenges of implementing sustainable land-use policies in different regions of the world, revealing problems that are common to all jurisdictions and highlighting others that are unique to particular regions. It also includes chapters documenting new approaches to sustainable land use, such as reforms to property rights regimes and environmental laws. Other chapters offer comparisons of approaches in different jurisdictions that can present insights which might not be apparent from a single-jurisdiction analysis.

This book analyzes the law and policy for the management of global common resources. As competing demands on the global commons are increasing, the protection of environment and the pursuit of growth give rise to all sorts of conflicts. It also analyzes issues in the protection of the global commons from a fairness, effectiveness and world order perspective. The author examines whether the current policymaking and future trends point to a fair allocation of global common resources that is effective in protecting the environment and the pursuit of sustainable development. The author looks at the cost-effectiveness of international environmental law and applies theories of national environmental law to international environmental problems. Chapters include analysis on areas such as marine pollution, air pollution, fisheries management, transboundary water resources, biodiversity, hazardous and radioactive waste management, state responsibility and liability.

This book analyzes the law and policy for the management of global common resources. As competing demands on the global commons are increasing, the protection of environment and the pursuit of growth give rise to all sorts of conflicts. It also analyzes issues in the protection of the global commons from a fairness, effectiveness and world order perspective. The author examines whether the current policymaking and future trends point to a fair allocation of global common resources that is effective in protecting the environment and the pursuit of sustainable development. The author looks at the cost-effectiveness of international environmental law and applies theories of national environmental law to international environmental problems. Chapters include analysis on areas such as marine pollution, air pollution, fisheries management, transboundary water resources, biodiversity, hazardous and radioactive waste management, state responsibility and liability.

Rescuing Science from Politics debuts chapters by the nation's leading academics in law, science, and philosophy who explore ways that the law can be abused by special interests to intrude on the way scientists conduct research. The high stakes and adversarial features of regulation create the worst possible climate for the honest production and use of science especially by those who will ultimately bear the cost of the resulting regulatory standards. Yet an in-depth exploration of the ways in which dominant interest groups distort the available science to support their positions has received little attention in the academic or popular literature. The book begins by establishing non-controversial principles of good scientific practice. These principles then serve as the benchmark against which each chapter author compares how science is misused in a specific regulatory setting and assist in isolating problems in the integration of science by the regulatory process.

Global regulatory standards are emerging from the environmental and health jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, the World Trade Organization, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and investor-state dispute settlement. Most prominent are the three standards of regulatory coherence, due regard for the rights of others, and due diligence in the prevention of harm. These global regulatory standards are a phenomenon of our times, representing a new contribution to the ordering of the relationship between domestic and international law, and a revised conception of sovereignty in an increasingly pluralistic global legal era. However, the legitimacy of the resulting 'standards-enriched' international law remains open to question. International courts and tribunals should not be the only fora in which these standards are elaborated, and many challenges and opportunities lie ahead in the ongoing development of global regulatory standards. Debate over whether regulatory coherence should go beyond reasonableness and rationality requirements and require proportionality stricto sensu in the relationship between regulatory measures and their objectives is central. Due regard, the most novel of the emerging standards, may help protect international law's legitimacy claims in the interim. Meanwhile, all actors should attend to the integration rather than the fragmentation of international law, and to changes in the status of private actors.

Rescuing Science from Politics debuts chapters by the nation's leading academics in law, science, and philosophy who explore ways that the law can be abused by special interests to intrude on the way scientists conduct research. The high stakes and adversarial features of regulation create the worst possible climate for the honest production and use of science especially by those who will ultimately bear the cost of the resulting regulatory standards. Yet an in-depth exploration of the ways in which dominant interest groups distort the available science to support their positions has received little attention in the academic or popular literature. The book begins by establishing non-controversial principles of good scientific practice. These principles then serve as the benchmark against which each chapter author compares how science is misused in a specific regulatory setting and assist in isolating problems in the integration of science by the regulatory process.

'What Wales is doing today, the world will do tomorrow.' -Nikhil Seth, UN Assistant Secretary General '...the story of this revolutionary engine for change holds enormous possibility and is a true beacon of hope.' -Michael Sheen OBE, actor and UNICEF ambassador The story of how one small nation responded to global climate issues by radically rethinking public policy for future generations In #futuregen, Jane Davidson explains how, as Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales, she proposed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015-the first piece of legislation on Earth to place regenerative and sustainable practice at the heart of government. Unparalleled in its scope and vision, the Act connects environmental and social health and looks to solve complex issues such as poverty, education and unemployment. Davidson reveals how and why such groundbreaking legislation was forged in Wales-once reliant on its coal, iron and steel industries-and explores how the shift from economic growth to sustainable growth is creating new opportunities for communities and governments all over the world. #futuregen is the inspiring story of a small, pioneering nation discovering prosperity through its vast natural beauty, renewable energy resources and resilient communities. It's a living, breathing prototype for local and global leaders as proof of what is possible in the fight for a sustainable future.

This book collects land use laws from countries on each continent that attempt to achieve sustainable development. Due to the startling evidence of global deterioriation and the long-term trends in land use, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development was signed in 2002. In the laws collected in this volume, the reader can witness the evolution of national legal systems as they respond to the challenge of sustainable development. This volume illuminates the great flexibility and power of the law as a vehicle for change. Laws contained in this compendium are mechanisms competent to address society's problems; they provide strategies that are appropriate to the culture and place of their origin. This book provides evidence that laws and law reform are being used to create strategies that address a worldwide priority: the clear need to effectively use and preserve the land and its natural resources.

Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation responds to an unresolved question in legal scholarship: how are (or how might be) indigenous peoples' rights included in contemporary regulatory regimes for water. This book considers that question in the context of two key trajectories of comparative water law and policy. First, the tendency to 'commoditise' the natural environment and use private property rights and market mechanisms in water regulation. Second, the tendency of domestic and international courts and legislatures to devise new legal mechanisms for the management and governance of water resources, in particular 'legal person' models. This book adopts a comparative research method to explore opportunities for accommodating indigenous peoples' rights in contemporary water regulation, with country studies in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Chile and Colombia, providing much needed attention to the role of rights and regulation in determining indigenous access to, and involvement with, water in comparative law.