Although climate change is expected to have major consequences that affect the global environment in its broadest sense, one of the earliest and most direct impacts will be on Earth's fresh water systems. While some regions will experience increased precipitation, others will suffer serious...

This paper asks how countries can implement their commitments to limit the increase in the global average temperature under the recent Paris Agreement on Climate Change for agriculture. An initial examination of the relevant trade rules and case law indicates that they appear unable to legally...

With the growth of the developing world's population and economies, limiting their contribution to the global growth of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions has increased greatly in significance. The parties to the UN Climate Change Convention acknowledged this reality in the Bali Action Plan,...

This article examines two of the major water legal regimes in the Americas - that of Brazil and the United States. Both countries have extensive wet and dry regions and both hydro-regimes face a significant threat from global warming. Brazil, for instance, is home to between eight and fifteen...

This article explains why policy makers should seriously consider substantial early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as a part of any post-Kyoto framework, and sets out suggested elements of a framework for early action in a post-Kyoto agreement. Substantial early reductions are needed...

This article explains the basic elements of climate change law, with a particular focus on those issues that promise to be important for a considerable time as well as the major factors that are driving the development of this law. The emerging law of climate change is being constructed at the...

“Preventing future calamity requires not only agreement but action. Governments and other responsible groups are usually accused of reacting to crises rather than foreseeing and preventing them. We have an opportunity here to show that experts, scientists, lawyers, and governments can foresee...

National energy security, parallel with the ultimate goal of emissions reductions, is of utmost priority for the Chinese government. In order to comply with the requirements set by the Kyoto Protocol, the Chinese government announced, on 25 November 2009, that 2020’s CO2 emissions would be...

Although “cap and trade” programs for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are often discussed as a viable program for the United States (U.S.), it is unlikely that any such program will be adopted in the near future, but there are other options available that President Obama and the...

Municipalities in the United States are increasingly active in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Data suggest that the physical layout of communities and the buildings they contain make significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and thus to climate change. One useful tool...