The Polluter Pays Principle and Its Ascendancy in Climate Change Law PDF Download
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Author: Alexander Zahar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52
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Book Description
Under the international agreements on climate change, states have a responsibility to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. We may refer to this as an “obligation to regulate”. This article argues that the general, treaty-derived obligation to regulate is supplemented by a separate legal principle on how to regulate: the principle that the polluter must pay. The obligation to arrest greenhouse gas emissions through regulation necessarily comes at a cost to states and individuals, as any regulation does. But the general obligation to regulate does not contain any guidance on who should bear the costs of regulation and under what circumstances. This is where the polluter pays principle comes in. In its legal instantiation, it is a principle of justice. It requires polluters, both states and individuals, to pay, because it is not fair that they assume unlimited access to the atmospheric commons. Yet, as a principle of justice, the polluter pays principle must itself be implemented fairly. Not every polluter should be made to pay, or pay the same amount, indiscriminately, or without support, if that would cause another, even greater, unfairness. Thus the polluter pays principle serves as a guide to how the general obligation of states to regulate is to be implemented.
Author: Alexander Zahar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52
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Book Description
Under the international agreements on climate change, states have a responsibility to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. We may refer to this as an “obligation to regulate”. This article argues that the general, treaty-derived obligation to regulate is supplemented by a separate legal principle on how to regulate: the principle that the polluter must pay. The obligation to arrest greenhouse gas emissions through regulation necessarily comes at a cost to states and individuals, as any regulation does. But the general obligation to regulate does not contain any guidance on who should bear the costs of regulation and under what circumstances. This is where the polluter pays principle comes in. In its legal instantiation, it is a principle of justice. It requires polluters, both states and individuals, to pay, because it is not fair that they assume unlimited access to the atmospheric commons. Yet, as a principle of justice, the polluter pays principle must itself be implemented fairly. Not every polluter should be made to pay, or pay the same amount, indiscriminately, or without support, if that would cause another, even greater, unfairness. Thus the polluter pays principle serves as a guide to how the general obligation of states to regulate is to be implemented.
Author: Alexander Zahar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 15
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Book Description
In a 2010 paper Feng and Buhi suggested that the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 had demoted the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and “silently” elevated the polluter-pays principle to a dominant position in international climate law. As evidence they cited the fact that some non-Annex I parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, including China, had taken positions previously associated only with Annex I parties, in particular on the provision of climate finance to (other) developing countries. Now, eight years later, with the Paris Agreement erected on the conceptual foundation of the Copenhagen Accord, I ask whether the Feng-Buhi hypothesis has gained plausibility. Certainly, the Paris Agreement obliges states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions more than they would have otherwise. It thereby obliges them to incur a cost, or pay a price, for those emissions mitigated because of the Agreement. In this sense, states are under an obligation to price at least some of their emissions. (The general rule holds even if we exclude the United States and those less wealthy countries whose domestic mitigation effort may not be affected by the Agreement in the short term.) Other elements of the Agreement, detailed in this paper, also signify a treaty-led elevation of the polluter-pays principle in the climate change regime. Has it now therefore gained a legal foothold in the regime, if only implicitly? An alternative narrative is that the parties to the Agreement have agreed to reduce their emissions in response to, not any legal imperative, but what we might call the physical necessity of avoiding global warming of 2°C or above. A stronger counter-narrative points to certain political sensitivities that conspire to keep the polluter-pays principle's ascendancy quiet, if not entirely “silent”. In practice, however, as I argue, the principle is increasingly being recognized as delivering a positive obligation for states to act. The logical endpoint of this progressive development of the law is that every “polluter-state” is to accept that the emission of greenhouse gases in its territory must come at a cost to the state, as a matter of law. An emerging legal compulsion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by pricing them is not to be made light of in a field that is almost devoid of substantive law. Open acceptance of the principle may help to speed up and deepen the global response to climate change.
Author: Patrick Kimuyu
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668649278
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 12
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Book Description
Polemic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - Environmental Policy, grade: 1.3, Egerton University, language: English, abstract: It is evident that the environment is experiencing immense consequences from the impact of pollution. One of the most challenging issues related to the degradation of the environment owing to pollution is the phenomenon of climate change. Climate change explains the adverse effects of environmental degradation and pollution is the principal cause of this life-threatening phenomenon. Despite the remarkable progress achieved in combating environmental pollution through environmental policy approaches, there is a need for climate justice in which the polluter will be held responsible for the damage caused to the environment. In theory, this is the approach of the so-called Polluter Pays Principle. This approach appears relevant in addressing issues related to environmentally-mediated to humans. Despite the endless debate on issues of morality and justice, especially in America, the tenets of climate justice should be upheld by enforcing environmental policies that require the polluter to pay. Therefore, this argumentative essay will present an array of aspects that explain why the polluter should pay. It will discuss property rights, economic efficiency, tradable permits, and provide the means on how polluters can pay.
Author: Peter H. Howard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Alexander Zahar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16
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Book Description
The Paris Agreement obliges states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions more than they would have otherwise. It thereby obliges them to incur a cost, or pay a price, for those emissions mitigated because of the Agreement. In this sense, states are under an obligation to price at least some of their emissions. The general rule holds even if we exclude the United States (which has announced its withdrawal from the Agreement) and those less wealthy countries whose domestic mitigation effort may not be affected by the Agreement in the short term. Other elements of the Agreement, detailed in this article, also signify a treaty-led elevation of the polluter-pays principle in the climate change regime. I argue that the principle is increasingly being recognized as creating a positive obligation on states to act. The logical endpoint of this progressive development of the law is that every “polluter state” must accept that it will incur a cost for the emission of greenhouse gases in its territory, as a matter of law. An emerging international legal compulsion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by pricing them is not to be made light of in a field that is almost devoid of substantive law. Recognition of the principle's legal weight may help to speed up and deepen the global response to climate change.
Author: Benoit Mayer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108840159
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 473
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Book Description
An innovative volume that covers all the common topics of climate law currently debated in the global academic community.
Author: Alexander Zahar
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1800886748
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 445
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Book Description
This comprehensive Research Handbook sets out a systematic analysis of the Paris Agreement taking into account developments since it entered into force in 2016. It explores the treaty’s capacity, as an instrument of international law, to compel state action to address the universal threat of climate change.
Author: Daniel Bodansky
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191643149
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 366
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Book Description
This textbook, by three experts in the field, provides a comprehensive overview of international climate change law. Climate change is one of the fundamental challenges facing the world today, and is the cause of significant international concern. In response, states have created an international climate regime. The treaties that comprise the regime - the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement establish a system of governance to address climate change and its impacts. This book provides a clear analytical guide to the climate regime, as well as other relevant international legal rules. The book begins by locating international climate change law within the broader context of international law and international environmental law. It considers the evolution of the international climate change regime, and the process of law-making that has led to it. It examines the key provisions of the Framework Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. It analyses the principles and obligations that underpin the climate regime, as well as the elaborate institutional and governance architecture that has been created at successive international conferences to develop commitments and promote transparency and compliance. The final two chapters address the polycentric nature of international climate change law, as well as the intersections of international climate change law with other areas of international regulation. This book is an essential introduction to international climate change law for students, scholars and negotiators.
Author: Nicolas de Sadeleer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192582666
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 640
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Book Description
This book traces the evolution of environmental principles from their origins as vague political slogans reflecting fears about environmental hazards to their embodiment in enforceable laws. Environmental law has always responded to risks posed by industrial society but the new generation of risks have required a new set of environmental principles, emerging from a combination of public fears, science, ethics, and established legal practice. This book shows how three of the most important principles of modern environmental law grew out of this new age of ecological risk: the polluter pays principle, the preventive principle, and the precautionary principle. Since the first edition was published, the principles of polluter-pays, prevention, and precaution have been encapsulated in a swathe of legislation at domestic and international level. Courts have been invoking environmental law principles in a broad range of cases, on issues including GMOs, conservation, investment, waste, and climate change. As a result, more States are paying heed to these principles as catalysts for improving their environmental laws and regulations. This edition will integrate to a greater extent the relationship between environmental principles and human rights. The book analyses new developments including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which has continuously carved out environmental duties from a number of rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, and the implementation of the UNECE Convention on Access to Information.
Author: Jorge E. Viñuales
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191510424
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 831
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Book Description
The international community has long grappled with the issue of safeguarding the environment and encouraging sustainable development, often with little result. The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was an emphatic attempt to address this issue, setting down 27 key principles for the international community to follow. These principles define the rights of people to sustainable development, and the responsibilities of states to safeguard the common environment. The Rio Declaration established that long term economic progress required a connection to environmental protection. It was designed as an authoritative and comprehensive statement of the principles of sustainable development law, an instrument to take stock of the past international and domestic practice, a guide for the design of new multilateral environmental regimes, and as a reference for litigation. This commentary provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the principles of the Declaration, written by over thirty inter-disciplinary contributors, including both leading practitioners and academics. Each principle is analysed in light of its origins and rationale. The book investigates each principle's travaux préparatoires setting out the main points of controversy and the position of different countries or groups. It analyses the scope and dimensions of each principle, providing an in-depth understanding of its legal effects, including whether it can be relied before a domestic or international court. It also assesses the impact of the principles on subsequent soft law and treaty development, as well as domestic and international jurisprudence. The authors demonstrate the ways in which the principles interact with each other, and finally provide a detailed analysis of the shortcomings and future potential of each principle. This book will be of vital importance to practitioners, scholars, and students of international environomental law and sustainable development.
