The Kyoto Protocol sets legally binding emission targets for industrialised countries without accounting for reductions carried out prior to 2008, the beginning of the first commitment period. There exists only one exception, the project-based Clean Development Mechanism where credits accrue...

This paper suggests that a mixture of measures may be needed to encourage renewable energy under the Kyoto Protocol. It explains that the goal of maximizing short term cost effectiveness tends to conflict with the goal of encouraging the long-term technological development that the world will...

Intergenerational equity has rarely been related to the management of Antarctica. This contribution discusses the question to what extent the principle of intergenerational equity has been implemented in the Antarctic Region through the instruments of the Antarctic Treaty system (ATS). A...

This paper offers an overview of existing international monitoring systems with relevance for environmental health surveillance. Representative monitoring systems are described that: address areas of chronic and acute exposure, and diseases and behavioural effects resulting from...

This article argues that a key to sustainability is redirecting the law of economic development. From a historical perspective, sustainable development is an effort to integrate environmental protection and restoration with development. As a result, it is not possible to fully understand...

This article explores how deeply held philosophies and environmental risk allocation are "real" values in terms of enivronmental impacts, and as such should be considered under NEPA. If this were the case, this would make the operation of NEPA more transparent and efficient

Temperature records compiled by the International Panel on Climate Change are biased by non-climatic factors that are largely socioeconomic in origin. The result is that as much as 50 percent of the land-surface warming that has been detected in recent decades may not be the product of global...

The U.S. Department of Energy is working to develop and implement commercial-scale carbon capture and storage. This article discusses the technical and legal problems that must be resolved to have a viable program. It concludes that whether carbon sequestration becomes a commercial reality will...

This chapter surveys the origins of emissions trading in theory and early practice, from John Dales' initial explication of the instrument through its first large scale experiment in the 1990 US Clean Air Act Amendments

The central question of environmental law is "how much?" How much pollution should we emit into the air and water? How much resource exploitation should we engage in? While for other "how much" questions our society tends to rely (at least in theory) on the market, when it comes to environmental...