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At the time of the 1972 Stockholm UN Conference on the Human
Environment, the concept of sustainable development and the subject
of international environmental law were virtually unknown. Since
then, the importance of the subject has burgeoned, as has the
number and complexity of the legal instruments that seek to address
the threats posed to the planet by humankind. Deforestation, marine
pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity and similar
concerns are now familiar - and still unresolved - problems. This
research review discusses a selection of key articles on the
seminal issues of sustainable development and international
environmental law, providing the reader with a solid understanding
of the breadth and texture of the legal issues involved.
Printed on Demand. Limited stock is held for this title. If you
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[email protected] purpose of this guide is to facilitate the
ratification or acceptance of the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement and
the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement. It presents an outline of some
of the most important provisions contained in the two agreements.
The book also includes a 'tool kit' of the various approaches used
by some countries that have already enacted national legislation to
meet the obligations and objectives set forth in these agreements.
The precautionary concept has become intrinsic to international
environmental policy, especially with the adoption, in 1992, of the
Rio Declaration at UNCED. Principle 15 of that Declaration provides
that: "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary
approach shall be widely applied by States according to their
capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a
reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent
environmental degradation." The challenge facing the international
community is how to attain truly precautionary environmental
policies. This challenge is one of changing perceptions as much as
of changing institutions or technical mechanisms. It is a challenge
to our way of viewing the world as much as to our views of the role
of science, or the burden of proof. It also raises a question as to
the role of legal and other regulatory instruments in implementing
the precautionary principle. This question, however, lends itself
to a multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach. After an
introduction to the origins and development of the precautionary
principle, 12 chapters explore a selection of themes relevant to
the implementation of the principle. Where the relationship between
international, national and local policies is concerned, a new
concept is introduced: glocalization. The book concludes with a
synthesis of the opportunities for, and constraints on, the
implementation of the precautionary principle, as identified by the
various authors.
It is now more than ten years since the 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) came into force and more
than twenty years since it was concluded in December of 1982 after
more than nine years of negotiations. The famous "package deal"
that it represented addressed many of the problematic issues that
previous conventions had been unable to settle. This collection of
essays, by leading academics and practitioners, provides a critical
review of the LOSC and its relationship to and interface with the
wide range of developments which have occurred since 1982. The
individual chapters reveal a number of core themes, including the
need to maintain the integrity of the LOSC and its centrality to
oceans regulation; the tension between regional global regimes for
oceans governance and the struggle to reconcile these within the
LOSC; the gradual consolidation of authority over oceans space; the
difficulty of adapting some of the more dated provisions of the
LOSC to deal with unforeseen contemporary issues of oceans use; and
the consequent development of the general obligations of the LOSC
through binding and non-binding agreements. They clearly indicate
the potential impact and role of post-LOSC agreements and
institutions in developing the law of the sea and resolving some of
the outstanding substantive issues. From this it is clear that the
future of the Law of the Sea will involve an understanding of the
wider legal environment within which it operates.
The first protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) was adopted in Kyoto in 1997 and entered into force in
February 2005. It is a unique international law instrument which
sets legally binding targets for the reduction of emissions of
greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. The targets
are unprecedented in an environmental agreement and will involve
substantial financial commitment in virtually all industrialized
country parties to the protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is also the
first international agreement to include economic instruments which
are designed to involve private sector entities and assist parties
to meet their targets. These economic instruments, known as the
Kyoto or flexible mechanisms, are Joint Implementation (JI), the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and International Emissions
Trading. The Kyoto Protocol defined these mechanisms but did not
set out the details necessary for their operation. After protracted
negotiations, detailed rules were finalized at the Seventh Session
of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties held in Marrakech in 2001.
The Marrakech Accords run to almost 250 pages but still leave many
important practical issues unaddressed. As the 2008-2012 commitment
period of the Kyoto Protocol draws close more and more projects
under CDM and JI are being developed to take advantage of the Kyoto
mechanisms and the key issues and problems are now becoming more
apparent. Drawing on the emerging body of expertise in this complex
area, this book conveys a knowledge of what is becoming known as
'Carbon Finance'. It thereby aims to contribute to the development
of the market for carbon emission reductions - one of the
objectives of the Kyoto mechanisms.
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