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Skepticism over aspects of the carbon markets has the potential to infect perceptions of initiatives seeking to engage the private sector in the gargantuan task of financing the transition to a low-carbon global economy. Climate finance, working in tandem with climate markets, is at the core of the Paris Agreement and the financial flows required to give adequate effect to its implementation cannot happen without the commitment of private finance and the private sector being fully engaged. For this to occur, there must be confidence in the design, operation, and governance of markets; and in relation to mitigation, in the validity and environmental integrity of measurable outcomes. The field of climate data analysis is developing to service the demands of the financial sector, driven in part by anticipated regulatory and disclosure requirements. Yet an examination of the current analytical approaches points to an emphasis on the consequences for corporations, investments, assets, and infrastructure from climate-related risk, as opposed to the consequences for the climate of corporate activities, investments, asset or infrastructure development. While both approaches are legitimate subjects for analysis, the paper argues that this risk bifurcation can and should be addressed to ensure the raison d'être of climate finance and climate markets – transition to a low-carbon economy and the mitigation objectives of global climate policy – is given due weight, through the development of accurate, reliable, comparable metrics that provide clear yardsticks on how climate finance investments are contributing to progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the challenges of causality and attribution within the evolving area of climate impact criminal law. The complexities are influenced by factors such as collective greenhouse gas emissions, time lags and non-localized impacts. This paper analyses proposals of modifying the definition of causality to incorporate concurrent causes and probability statements. Attribution science is emerging as a crucial tool in legal proceedings. As this method gains prominence in civil cases, this article explores its potential use in criminal law proceedings. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of adhering to principles of criminal law while developing this new area of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement of COP21 distinctly recognises the issue of climate change loss and damage with Article 8 in the main text and Paragraph 51 in its decision text. The Parties at COP22 in Marrakesh 2016 approved a strategic workstream for the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage's Executive Committee to guide the implementation of the Mechanism's function of enhancing action and support (including finance, technology and capacity-building) to address loss and damage, with the next progress review in 2019. International negotiations on loss and damage did not see considerable progress at COP23 in Bonn. Financial interests still took priority at COP24 to halt accounting mechanisms. COP25 also failed with a lack of consensus amongst post-2020 tasks such as art 6.With reference to some evolving legal principles in other related fields of international law and civil environment cases in Germany, United States, India and China, this paper will examine possible options to prove causal links between the economic activities of developed countries and loss and damage associated with the impact of climate change for developing countries against the backdrop of the Sendai Framework. An alternative standard of proof for climate change loss and damage-related litigations would culminate into a quasi-loss-and-damage compensatory response for countries more vulnerable to the impact of climate change. It could support the implementation and amplify the effectiveness of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four associations filed l'affaire du siècle, a climate legal action against the French State before the Administrative Court of Paris in May 2019. This lawsuit questions the State's actions and inactions in matters of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Even though the complaint is mainly based on legal constructions and theories that are well-known to French Courts, this paper focuses on three ground-breaking legal innovations brought by the plaintiffs: a pre-existing general State obligation to combat climate change, a pre-existing right to live in a sustainable climate system, and, eventually, the remediation of the pure ecological damage (préjudice écologique) linked to climate change through a formal demand for monetary compensation of one symbolic euro and an injunctive relief to take all measures to limit global warming under the 1.5 °C threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) engaging in climate change is not new to academic discourse. Since at least 1992 the UNSC has been examined as a means by which to provide renewed impetus to the climate change response agenda. Despite this, there has been very little progress in terms of UNSC engagement. One reason for this, according to Conca et al, is that when states and other interested parties argue for climate change intervention they do so with a lack of clarity as to what form it should take and what benefits might follow. This paper intends to address this particular aspect of the debate and propose reasons as to why the UNSC should engage, how it could engage, and what benefit it could bring to the climate change regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many are hopeful that the mandate under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action to negotiate a new legal instrument applicable to all Parties from 2020 marks a new era in international climate policy, the beginning of the journey has not been an easy one. Indeed, with political stakes higher than before, it seems that the UN climate change negotiations will face considerable procedural hurdles also in the future. The UNFCCC regime has also gone through significant evolution on the institutional front in recent years. Notably, several limited membership bodies have been created, arguably increasing continuity in the process by ensuring more frequent and detailed consideration of issues such as adaptation, finance and technology. In light of these developments, this paper focuses on the efficiency of the UNFCCC negotiations, discussing proposals to streamline the negotiating process under the Conference of the Parties and its subsidiary bodies, the role of the Presidency and ministerial involvement, and the potential of the Limited Membership Bodies to expedite work under the UNFCCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, which produces the largest percentage of global emissions, is an important player in global climate change governance and has the potential to change the global climate outlook. In the past decade, China has made significant progress in getting climate change on the national agenda and becoming a leader in setting greenhouse gas emissions targets. However, there are many challenges impeding the implementation of China's climate policies, including a lack of urgency and political will and low public awareness of climate change. Air pollution, on the other hand, due in part to public concern about adverse health effects and quality of life, has become an increasingly greater priority for the Chinese government. This paper aims to examine air pollution as a driver of climate governance and the potential synergy between China's climate policies and air pollution governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the issues raised by creating market incentives for private industry to engage in geoengineering. It argues that the benefits could include increased innovation and creativity in dealing with climate-related problems, and that the direct environmental risks are probably manageable. However, the political consequences are potentially destabilising and hard to predict. The creation of diffuse vested commercial interests may obstruct the achievement of the common good, as well as leading to global climate concerns being partially transformed into local weather concerns. While the commodification of the climate fits the long-term trend of increasing human management of the natural world, it is a step of alarming size and possibly hard to reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article XX has been a valuable instrument to justify exceptions from the anti-discrimination provisions of the GATT 1994. In general, this Article is considered by experts to be the most likely defence for any climate change mitigation measure in breach GATT 1994 obligations. That assumption is not in dispute here; rather, this article considers the requirements of the Article XX exceptions, but also explores the conditions of the National Security exception contained in Article XXI. Although it is possible that this exception could be used for climate change mitigation measures, this paper argues that it is unlikely that the National Security exception could be legitimately applied in these circumstances without member agreement to the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National and international climate policies are in a crucial phase. While the EU is struggling to translate its ambitious emission reduction targets into legislative force, the international negotiators are heading for the Copenhagen conference under the UNFCCC. The financial and economic crisis challenges the climate goals in two dimensions. First, EU policy makers will need to defend their reduction plans in light of the economic downturn, as the issue arises whether climate policy measures are still affordable. This has become clear in the EU's climate and energy package debates in late 2008, which have led to a softening of the cost impact from emissions trading and emission standards. On the other hand, the existing investment schemes for economic recovery could offer a double dividend, reducing emissions and stimulating the economy. This paper addresses these dimensions by, first, pointing out the short and the long-term cost effects of climate policy measures, second, by discussing the potential for a business-cycle stimulus from climate-friendly investment. In particular, the focus is on the EU situation where recovery plans meet with climate policy measures already in place. Finally, the EU policy approach on green investment, carbon pricing and international climate leadership is analysed with a view to the international climate negotiations, which suffer from the economic constraints, especially when it comes to developing countries and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change continues to affect global areas of importance such as human rights, the marine environment, and international trade. This article explores the use of litigation as an alternative way to combat climate change. Whilst there are a number of enforcement strategies under the climate change regime, litigation is not adopted as a means of enforcing obligations and commitments. However, there has been little development in strengthening the enforcement of climate obligations during Copenhagen 2009, Cancun 2010, and Durban 2011 climate talks. Few studies on climate change have proposed litigation as a method of enforcement under the climate change regime; they do not perform advanced analysis of the effectiveness of climate litigation specifically at the international level. This is imperative because of the ambition to litigate climate issues domestically and internationally.. The article proposes two main questions. First, how effective is climate litigation in reshaping global responses to climate change? Second, how strong is litigation in enforcing climate obligations (mitigation and adaptation)? In answering these questions, this article analyzes domestic and international climate cases to determine whether there has been or will be progress using climate litigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the climate lawsuit brought against the French State in ' I l'affaire du siècle' i [1], the environmental NGO "Notre affaire à tous" (NAAT)[2] filed a second high-profile climate court case against one of the "carbon majors", Total, a French corporate group based in 130 countries and at the origin of almost 1% of global GHG each year[3]. The constitutional principle of the liberty of enterprises will surely not allow the courts to interfere that far in Total's operations. 3 According to the Carbon Majors Reports, Total is one of the 20 companies contributing the most to global warming worldwide (see Carbon Disclosure Project, Richard Heede "Carbon Majors Report" [2017]) since Total's direct and indirect GHG account each year for approximately 1% of global emissions (458 Millions of tonnes of CO2equivalent). 'The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company's GHG emissions into three "scopes". [Extracted from the article]

Last year's conference of the global climate change regime took place from 2 until 15 December 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Despite marking a new record for overtime in the history of the UNFCCC, the conference did not only fail to meet the increasing public demand for swift and strong climate action, it also failed on its formal mandate to finalise the Paris rulebook. A record number of issues were left unresolved and shelved for the next session. COP25 thereby highlighted how much work still lies ahead both domestically and internationally if 2020 is to see a step-up in climate action that is consistent with the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Oslo Principles delineate the legal obligations of States and enterprises to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by streamlining the fragmented legal regimes relating to climate change. A novel and demanding endeavour, they constitute a valuable attempt to compel governments to commit to climate change action. However, while asserting the breadth of their remit, the Oslo Principles neglect tomeaningfully engage with climate change displacement - an increasingly urgent issue that has yet to be comprehensively addressed at the international level. This article explores the extent of the opportunity missed by the Oslo Principles in neglecting to promote the issue of climate change displacement to the international agenda, thus facilitating amore comprehensive response to climate change, and ultimately ascertains that any expectation that the Oslo Principles would meaningfully engage with climate change displacement is fundamentally misplaced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article discusses effectiveness in environmental regulation when two instruments, a carbon dioxide tax (CO2 tax) and an emissions trading scheme (ETS), are applied concomitantly to the same activity. The Norwegian regulation of the CO2 emissions from the upstream petroleum sector is taken as an example since it submits this sector to both the payment of a CO2 tax and the obligation to surrender emissions allowances under the EU ETS since Norway joined the scheme in 2008. The specific approach to this double regulation consists in adjusting the rate of the CO2 tax according to the price for the EU allowances in order to obtain an overall CO2 price. The article examines how the adjustment mechanism operates and which conclusions can we drawn in terms of effectiveness of climate regulation, ie at the level of the design, the implementation and the effects. Finally, it discusses the need for governments to use taxation as a supplementary tool to the EU ETS in a context of low allowances price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the updated laws related to carbon and climate. Topics discussed include steps taken by U.S. president Donald Trump's Administration to roll back the regulations for addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the power sector, and others; proposal of a rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for repealing the Clean Power Plan; and the emission and fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles.

For many years, the issue of the legal form of the new climate agreement has hovered over the international negotiations. Countries have insisted on first discussing substance. Indeed, it is here that the main divergences remain. However, one year out from the Paris climate conference, it is time to open the discussion on the legal form of the final agreement. The issue of legal form is often reduced to the negotiation of a 'binding' or 'non-binding' agreement. The bindingness of an international environmental agreement however depends on multiple parameters. We propose four parameters to be considered: the form of the core agreement; the 'anchoring' of commitments; mechanisms for transparency, accountability and facilitation; and mechanisms for compliance. Parties should assess pros and cons of these options, and the agreement should be optimised across all four, combining flexibility and credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on developments in climate and carbon laws. It states that the European Commission has presented measures related to disaster insurance and climate change adaptation. The U.S. and China will jointly introduce a plan on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) issues. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a rule regarding carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emission from combustion turbines and electric utility steam generating units.

Debates over climate engineering governance tend to assume this technology is an allor-nothing affair that produces inherently global effects which intentionally can reach any nation or population. With the emergence of possible regional climate engineering methods that seek to limit their effects to relatively local areas, this governance debate may find itself left behind in some instances by disruptively novel technological options. If so, regional climate engineering may fit better under a combination of local transnational mechanisms and bilateral treaties rather than the existing broad-scale multinational frameworks available under multilateral treaties such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is a phenomenon of great concern at the international level. Climate change has significant impacts on water access, causing long dry period or intense precipitation, floods and drought. In the brief analysis, it will be proved through States' practice that the right to water has almost achieved the status of a customary international norm as an independent human right, thus creating obligations upon all States. Considering the relation between water and climate change, it will be argued that the human right to water may be integrated in the adaptation measures provided for by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, even though the human rights and climate change regimes are distinct. The practice in climate change adaptation measures which consider the necessity of granting the access to water to the population is an element which supports the existence of an international custom recognizing the right to water as an independent human right. At the same time, however, this international custom may imply the development of a human rights-based approach in matters concerning climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of international environmental legal principles and their role in future climate change instruments. The five international environmental legal principles explored in this context are: inter and intergenerational equity, the precautionary principle, common but differentiated responsibility, the polluter pays and principle and the principles of responsibility and prevention. Principles are used within regulatory frameworks to guide the interpretation and implementation of the obligations specified within the instrument. It is found that these principles provide a useful basis for the development of international adaptation and mitigation measures that are equitable and ethical in nature. This article argues that these principles must be drafted more strategically into international climate change instruments allowing them to serve as a foundational basis upon which more stringent and equitable binding duties and rights can be derived from. This article makes some recommendations as to the type of obligations that these principles could be used to inform in future climate instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

References for the articles published in the 2011 issue of "Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR)" are presented.

This article considers the complex and controversial issue of climate geoengineering, examining the international legal framework for regulating large-scale interventions in the Earth's natural climate system to offset emissions and to avoid catastrophic climate change. It uses the injection of sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere and ocean iron fertilization as examples. It sets out the fragmented nature of the international legal framework which might regulate geoengineering, and the contours of any possible future legal response. The article concludes that the emergence at the international level of a single treaty dedicated to the regulation of all geoengineering methods is both unlikely and undesirable, favouring instead an approach based on a number of guiding principles for the governance of geoengineering research which are briefly elaborated. It suggests these could be applied against the backdrop of a general prohibition on deployment pending the fuller development of appropriate governance frameworks for specific geoengineering methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the transition from regulation to governance in the climate change context. It argues that the study of regulation, and particularly that of climate change regulation, should go beyond traditional state and transnational regulation to encompass hybrid regulatory forms which blur the distinction between the public and the private, the mandatory and the voluntary and destabilize the boundaries between the global, the national and the sub-national. The article analyzes the particular problematics of climate change which make regulating it particularly difficult and explores creative forms of soft regulation that environmental groups, NGOs and international NGOs have developed in order to bypass the obstacles posed by traditional state regulation. Such novel regulatory mechanisms include certification programs, voluntary cap and trade initiatives and corporate codes of conduct. It concludes by reflecting on the crucial question whether the plethora of new governance mechanisms is at all apt to address the problem of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on various developments related to climate regulation and the carbon market in different countries. The European Parliament has introduced the Single European Sky SES II legislation, which includes new rules for improving the environmental sustainability of air traffic. A draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) was circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 31, 2009.

The article offers information on the developments to the carbon and climate law in the U.S. It notes that the only solid outcome on the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP14) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Poznan, Poland, is the adaptation fund. Moreover, the European Council made agreement to incorporate climate and energy package on December 12, 2008.