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Regenerative agriculture--a farming practice that sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into the soil--has potential to turn into big business in this climate crisis. If farmers can accurately measure the amount of trapped carbon in their soil, they can sell that stored carbon as a "carbon credit," a tradeable certificate representing the right to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) or the equivalent amount of another greenhouse gas. As more than seventy countries race to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to meet Paris Agreement1 goals, carbon credits are becoming the "new currency" to meet or exceed national and global targets. Carbon credits can also reduce exposure to legal liability from shareholder misrepresentation, fraud and greenwashing claims that may arise when firms advertise corporate environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") policies. While regenerative agriculture is gaining momentum, investors are cautious about the carbon sequestering potential it holds. Of the top one hundred food companies in the world, fifty-eight are working on regenerative agriculture projects to sequester carbon--either as small pilots, by meeting specific acreage targets (like General Mills, Pepsi, and Cargill), or by tying them to larger business strategies (like Nestlé).2 All the while, critics say that carbon sequestration projects are 'unquantifiable,' 'unreliable,' and evidence of 'greenwashing. If regenerative agriculture is to play a larger role in helping the US reach a goal of "net-zero" by 2050, regulations are needed to reassure buyers that carbon credits from carbon sequestration are measurable and verifiable, and to reassure sellers that their interests will be protected. Regulations are necessary to: (1) raise market confidence by reducing information asymmetry in contracting, (2) provide a uniform definition and standards for regenerative agricultural practices, (3) improve measurements of regenerative agriculture outcomes and soil carbon, and (4) require public companies to disclose the role that carbon offsets play in their climate-related business strategy. Filling gaps in food law and environmental governance literatures, this Article is the first to analyze the carbon market using case studies from food market participants. The Article proposes regulatory changes to help mitigate the risks associated with the trading of carbon credits. This Article is timely, arriving when America's recommitment to the Paris Climate Agreement is setting the stage for a new emissions accounting era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section discusses significant 2021-2022 European Union (EU) environmental law cases handled by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). Topics explored include the third-party access to court records addressed in the case Friends of the Irish Environment Ltd. v Commissioner for Environmental Information, the alleged infringement of EU law involved in the case Czech Republic v Poland, and the greenhouse gas emission allowances under the EU emission trading scheme held by the CJEU.

The United States government has indicated a desire to advance environmental justice through climate policy. As fossil fuel combustion produces both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate mitigation strategies may provide an opportunity to address historical inequities in air pollution exposure. To test the impact of climate policy implementation choices on air quality equity, we develop a broad range of GHG reduction scenarios that are each consistent with the US Paris Accord target and model the resulting air pollution changes. Using idealized decision criteria, we show that least cost and income-based emission reductions can exacerbate air pollution disparities for communities of color. With a suite of randomized experiments that facilitates exploration of a wider climate policy decision space, we show that disparities largely persist despite declines in average pollution exposure, but that reducing transportation emissions has the most potential to reduce racial inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Rising greenhouse gases have contributed to global warming above the pre-industrial levels with detrimental effects on world climatic patterns. Extreme weather has inflicted drastic impacts, including loss of lives and livelihoods and economic disruption. However, collective international cooperation in adopting greenhouse gas emission mitigating measures can translate into long-run beneficial effects of improving environmental quality. This study examines if international environmental cooperation among the world's top ten polluters can reduce production side emissions. Design/methodology/approach: The panel estimation procedure was applied to data from ten top polluting countries from 2000 to 2019. Findings: The results revealed a statistically significant inverse association between a nation's commitments to international environmental treaties and carbon dioxide emissions. Other than confirming the environmental Kuznets curve effect, industrial intensification, international trade and law rule are other strong correlations of carbon dioxide emissions. Research limitations/implications: The main policy implication is the urgency for the leaders of the world's top ten polluters to actively cooperate in developing and implementing new production-side carbon emission measures as well as the implementation and enforcement of existing international treaties to minimize further environmental damage and let the countries in the lower ranks of carbon emissions to enjoy the long-run benefits of the decarbonized world. Originality/value: This study makes a new contribution to the environmental research literature by unfolding how collective global cooperation on environmental challenges can help reduce environmental damage in a coherent analytical framework. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0598 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framework climate laws are being introduced around the world at the national and subnational scale to set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and coordinate climate change mitigation activities to meet those targets. Drawing on a 2020 empirical study, this article analyses the legal design and early implementation of an Australian example: the Climate Change Act 2017 (Vic). The Victorian case study informs a discussion of the role that such laws can play in supporting the realisation of the climate change mitigation goals of the international Paris Agreement. The article explores the promise and the challenges of using framework legislation to align domestic emissions reduction activities to Paris Agreement temperature goals. It demonstrates the potential, but also the pitfalls, of the bottom-up, facilitatory regulatory approach employed in Victoria, which is similar to many other framework laws and the core emissions reduction mechanisms of the Paris Agreement itself. Cross-referencing recent experience in comparative jurisdictions, the article highlights lessons for the legal design and implementation of effective, impactful framework climate change laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is plenty of information about mechanisms that can motivate companies' voluntary reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there needs to be more investigation of the effects that fixed and non-fixed monetary incentives could bring to executives (who make decisions on these issues). We analyzed 31 B3-listed companies that disclosed emissions inventories (GHGs) between 2012 and 2019. We conducted an exploratory analysis using a documental analysis of non-financial disclosures and a two-stage dynamic panel (GMM-SYS) to control for potential endogeneity problems. The results are robust and suggest the effectiveness of these monetary incentives to reduce GHG emissions. Our main results are i) A positive and contemporary relationship exists between monetary incentives and carbon emission reductions. ii) The variables ROA and Total Assets showed a positive and significant relationship with emissions so the larger and more profitable the firm the higher the emissions; iii) Despite ineffective GHG environmental laws, Brazilian companies seem to offer incentives to reduce carbon emissions voluntarily. Our results are relevant especially for regulators and shareholders, as they provide subsidies for emissions control in developing countries like Brazil and align interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the 39th session of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG-39) of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer held from July 11-14, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. Topics covered include issues affecting the implementation of the Protocol and the operations of its technical bodies, starting of initiatives to properly implement the Kigali Amendment on hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), and updates on revisions to data-reporting forms.

On November 8, 2016, the citizens of the United States elected not just a new government, but a very different government. With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States and the results in the many contested congressional races, the pendulum of politics swung, perhaps harder than it has swung in at least several decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article analyzes the characterization of pollution taxes and so-called cap-and-trade programs addressing greenhouse gas emissions as policies that "put a price on carbon, " a characterization that has come to dominate both policy discussion and much modem scholarship on environmental instrument choice. It explains that the rationale for characterizing cap and trade as putting a price on carbon suggests that analysts should likewise treat traditional regulation as a mechanism putting a price on carbon. Treating "market-based mechanisms" as uniquely putting a price on carbon reflects and perpetuates a tendency to see markets and government as antonyms-with markets operating through price, and governments operating through coercion-even though markets and governments are intimately intertwined and use a variety of tools. This Article shows that an informed third generation debate about instrument design and choice should focus on understanding price's limits as a coordinating tool, including the appreciation of potential conflicts among the values price is thought to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the reported impact of urban agriculture on the environment in America, focusing on U.S. environmental laws, the nation's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and various legal issues related to greenhouse gas emissions and urban soil contamination. Environmental cleanup liability and chemical contaminants such as lead-based paints and leaded-gasoline are mentioned. The U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) is also examined.

El artículo analiza diversos decretos y sentencias en Derecho de Medio Ambiente emitidos en la Unión Europea y España entre enero y marzo de 2011. Entre las regulaciones discutidas se encuentran el reglamento de información sobre gases invernaderos que deben suministrar los fabricantes de vehículos en la Unión Europea, Ley de Calidad de Aire y Protección de la Atmósfera y Ley de Parques Naturales de Andalucía, España.

The article offers information on the validity of the climate change law of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. It explores and analyzes the proposed displace common law claims regulations of the EPA and the five nuisance suits on climate change. Moreover, it presents the proposed regulations on greenhouse gases emissions as a result of the lawsuit between the American Electric Power Co. (AEP) v. Connecticut.

El artículo analiza diversos decretos y sentencias en el área de Derecho de Ambiente de la Unión Europea y España emitidos entre junio y diciembre de 2009. Entre las regulaciones discutidas se encuentran las normas para la participación voluntaria en auditorías medioambientales, real decreto 1514/2009 sobre protección de aguas subterráneas de España y normativa para el derecho de emisión de gases invernadero en España.

'Cap and trade' is the nucleus of the so-called flexible mechanisms of climate protection: the maximum use of a resource (here, a particular quantity of greenhouse gas emissions) is determined; from this, individual emission allowances are derived and allocated. Emission allowances can be traded—in other words, they can be purchased and sold. They can also be acquired by investing abroad, if this leads to a reduction of emissions. As elegant and perfect 'cap and trade' might appear, we have to ask whether this instrument meets the expectations it has raised. This can, however, be questioned. The article sketches out the 'cap and trade' system (Section 1), illustrates 'cap and trade's' lack of success (Section 2) and explains its failure arguing that economic logic has supplanted ecological logic (Section 3). This argument is followed by a reflection on whether the approach should altogether be abandoned or reformed through putting it into a framework of the regulatory tradition (Section 4). The article takes Germany as a case where it is felt important to look at implementation at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo analiza diversos decretos y sentencias en el área de Derecho de Medio Ambiente de la Unión Europea, España y Portugal, emitidos entre abril y junio de 2009. Entre las regulaciones discutidas se encuentran normativas sobre gases de efecto invernadero en la Unión Europea, así como uso del agua y manejo de residuos en España.

The imminent prospect of federal climate change legislation raises two questions: will state and local governments continue to press forward with climate change initiatives in the wake of congressional action and, if so, what is the likelihood these initiatives will survive the threat of federal preemption? The article concludes that state and local action on climate change is motivated only in part by the federal government's failure to adopt a national climate regulatory program and hence is likely to continue and perhaps even intensify. While a cap and trade program is likely to preempt state regulation of emissions allowances, it is unlikely to preempt many of the climate initiatives being pursued. However, the effect upon existing regional cap and trade regimes remains the biggest question mark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se analizan decretos y sentencias en Derecho de Medio Ambiente de la Unión Europea (UE) y España entre septiembre 2008 y enero 2009. Se incluyen el Reglamento 987/2008/CE de la Comisión Europea sobre registro de los productores o importadores de sustancias químicas en la UE, el Real Decreto 2090/2008 relativo a la Ley de Responsabilidad Medioambiental de España y sentencia del Tribunal Supremo de España sobre derechos de emisión de gases de efecto invernadero.

Interest in climate change has generated many proposals for cap-and-trade programs to control greenhouse gases. Longstanding American water rights regimes may have some lessons for these new proposals. Nineteenth century eastern water law focused on the cap--keeping water in stream-and particularly illustrates the importance of mobilized constituencies in any program that entails capping resource use. Western water law focused on individualized and supposedly tradable rights, and its experience shows especially the significance of rights-decimation both for the content and for the tradability of rights. As with water rights, both content and tradability in the new rights regimes are likely to match only imperfectly the goals that we want a cap-and-trade program to serve. For that reason, the historical experience of both water regimes also suggests the important role that surrounding and supporting institutions will play to facilitate trade under imperfect circumstances, and to reassure participants of the standards, accountability, and acceptability of the cap-and-trade regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers updates related to carbon and climate law in Europe as of 2012. The European Commission proposed a new environment action program that will provide general framework for environmental and climate policy until 2020. The Commission also proposed to regulate fluorinated greenhouse gases to reduce F-gases by two-thirds until 2030. A draft to postpone the auction of 900 million emission allowance to 2019 and 2020 was submitted on November 12.

The article examines the need of the additionally regarding organizations' voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction goals by which they aim to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases despite the absence of any legal requirement to do so in the U.S.

The article discusses the Supreme Court case American Electric Power Co. Inc. and others v. Connecticut and others which deals with greenhouse gas nuisance.