The Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 21 May 1997 (UN 1997a). It was drafted to articulate and codify the prevailing state practice and opinio juris – an action taken out of a sense of legal...

We live in peculiar times: on the one hand, many people — mainly in Western countries — enjoy an unprecedentedly high standard of living from a historical perspective. On the other hand, a considerable part of the population has a feeling that something went wrong, which is underscored by...

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...

Methane hydrates (hereinafter, MH), for many reasons, are widely recognized as a form of sustainable energy due to their environmentally friendly nature. MH, while burning, produce fresh water, which could in turn offer one possible solution to worldwide shortages of water. MH also maintains the...

The UN Resolution Transforming our world: “the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” entered the stage from 1 January 2016 on and enshrines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including 169 targets. This resolution seems to be a conceptual, normative answer to the global fluid pattern...

A central challenge facing nations today is how to ensure that both people and the natural environment have adequate freshwater to sustain and nourish their existence. In many parts of the world, communities actually compete with nature for dwindling supplies, to the detriment of both. Most...

Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht entstand im Rahmen eines Forschungsvorhabens im Auftrag des Umweltbundesamtes und beleuchtet mit dem Thema 'Gewässerschutz und Energiepflanzen' einen Aspekt, der bisher nicht im Fokus der Diskussionen um den Energiepflanzenanbau stand. In dieser Studie wurden...

This working paper presents objectives, methods and the empirical basis of the international working group InterPIG. The members of the group act within an informal network as a base for a mutual exchange of data needed for a unique way to annually calculate the costs of pig production and to...

This paper provides an overview of the Italian water management system, with particular reference to the links between agriculture and water resources, and emphasis on underground resources. Our objective is mainly descriptive at this level; nonetheless, we try to evaluate patterns of...

This paper investigates the existing Italian regulation regarding the so-called "administration by agreements" and the possibility to adapt the existing legal system to voluntary agreements in the environmental field in the light of the European guidelines on this issue. The research consists of...