Innovativeness and paralysis in international climate policy

Transnational Environmental Law

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 137-152

  Streck, Charlotte ^a,b  

^a Climate Focus   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

Climate Change Negotiations; Compliance Regime; Emissions Trading; Kyoto Protocol; redd; Transnational Governance; unfccc

Indexed keywords

EID: 84889037230     PISSN: 20471025     EISSN: 20471033     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S2047102511000112     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. New York, NY (US), 9 May 1992, in force 21 Mar. 1994, available at: http://unfccc.int.
2. Kyoto (Japan), 10 Dec. 1997, in force 16 Feb. 2005, available at: http://unfccc.int/kyoto-protocol/items/2830.php.
3. Transnational law here refers to all law which regulates actions or events that transcend national frontiers.
4. Despite the increasing recognition that, while global warming may still be categorized as an environmental problem, addressing climate mitigation and adaptation requires economically and socially sustainable solutions; state delegations to the UNFCCC often continue to be led by officials from environmental ministries.
5. J. Brunnée, S.J. Toope, Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account (Cambridge University Press, 2010), at p. 178.
6. The rules of procedures of the UNFCCC, adopted at the first conference of the parties, exclude a decision on voting (Art. 42): see FCCC/CP/1995/7, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/cop1/07a01.pdf.
7. See 'Summary of the Bonn Climate Change Conference', Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 12(513)SB34, 20 June 2011, available at: http://www.iisd.ca/download/ pdf/enb12513e.pdf.
8. A Google search for 'stalemate in climate negotiations' results in 1,290,000 hits from around the world.
9. The establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 was an important step towards creating a scientific basis for political action.
10. See D. Bodansky, 'The History of the Global Climate Change Regime', in U. Luterbacher & D.F. Spriz (eds.), International Relations and Global Climate Change (MIT Press, 2001), pp. 23-40.
11. Decision 10/CP12, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2007/6/Add.1, 14 Mar. 2008, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2007/cop13/eng/06a01.pdf.
12. J. Vidal, 'Copenhagen Climate Failure Blamed on "Danish Text"' The Guardian (Online Edition), 31 May 2010, available at: http://www.guardian. co.uk/environment/2010/may/31/climate-changecopenhagen-danish-text.
13. Decision 2/CP.15, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2009/11/Add.1, 30 Mar. 2010.
14. Art. 3.1, UNFCCC.
15. It has been argued that the South-North divide is not the main problem of climate negotiations, though; in the negotiation history North-North disagreements were at least as relevant as South-North confrontations: see D.A. Mejía, 'The Evolution of the Climate Change Regime: Beyond a North-South Divide?', ICIP Working Paper, Institut Catala International, Per La Pau, Barcelona, Spain, June 2010, available at: http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/icip/ Continguts/Publicacions/WorkingPapers/Arxius/WP10-6-ANG.pdf.
16. Directive 2003/87/EC of 13 Oct. 2003 establishing a Scheme for Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading within the Community and Amending Directive 96/61/EC [2003] OJ L275/32, amended through Directive 2008/101/EC [2009] OJ L8/3; and Directive 2009/29/EC [2009] OJ L140/63.
17. See Verified Carbon Standards, available at: http://www.v-c-s.org.
18. D. Burtraw & S.J. Szambelan, 'U.S. Emissions Trading Markets for SO2 and NOx, Resources for the Future', Discussion Paper RFF DP 09-40, Washington DC, 2009
19. M.W. Gehring & C. Streck, 'Emissions Trading: Lessons from SOx and NOx Emissions Allowance and Credit Systems, Legal Nature, Title, Transfer, and Taxation of Emission Allowances and Credits' (2005) 35 Environmental Law Reporter, pp. 10219-35.
20. R. Calel, 'Climate Change and Carbon Markets: A Panoramic History', Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Working Paper No. 62, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 52, July 2011, available at: http://www.cccep.ac.uk/Publications/Working-papers/ Papers/60-69/WP62-Climate-change-carbon-markets-panoramic-history.pdf, at p. 1.
21. UNFCCC, Marrakesh Accords, from Decision 2/CP.7 through to Decision 24/CP.7, adopted and confirmed in 2005 as Decisions of the COP serving as a Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), available at: http://unfccc.int/documentation/decisions/items/3597.php.
22. M. Netto & K.-U. Barani Schmidt, 'The CDM Project Cycle and the Role of the UNFCCC Secretariat', in D. Freestone & C. Streck (eds.), Legal Aspects of Carbon Trading (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 213-30.
23. B. Pearson & Y.S. Loong, 'The CDM: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions or Relabeling Business as Usual?', CDM Watch, Third World Network, Mar. 2003, available at: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/cdm.doc
24. A. Michaelowa & P. Purohit, 'Additionality Determination of Indian CDM Projects: Can Indian CDMProject Developers Outwit the CDMExecutive Board?', Climate Strategies, Discussion Paper CDM-1, Feb. 2007, available at: http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/additionality-cdmindia-cs-version9-07. pdf
25. http://www.noe21.org/docs/Michaelowa-teripress-2007. In 2007, there was an intense media debate on additionality and sustainability benefits of the CDM.
26. The Stockholm Environment Institute has compiled a list of publications that criticize the CDM for its lack of additionality: see B. Haya, 'Compilation of Evidence that the Majority of Projects in the CDM are Non-additional', 11 Sept. 2008, available at: http://www.co2offsetresearch.org/PDF/ AdditionalityLackCDM.pdf.
27. Michaelowa & Purohit, ibid.; L. Schneider, 'Is the CDM Fulfilling its Environmental and Sustainable Development Objectives? An Evaluation of the CDM and Options for Improvement', Oeko Institut, Berlin, 2007, available at: http://www.oeko.de/oekodoc/622/2007-162-en.pdf
28. M.W. Wara & D.G. Victor, 'A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets', Stanford University, Energy and Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 74, Apr. 2008, available at: http://pesd.stanford.edu/publications/a- realistic-policy-on-international-carbon-offsets.
29. There are 3,500 registered CDM projects for which 740m tCO2e (740 million tons of CO2 equivalent) emissions reductions had been issued by Oct. 2011. See UNFCCC website: http://cdm.unfccc.int.
30. An exception is the Regional GHG Initiative in the Northeast of the US: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, available at: http://www.rggi.org.
31. The EU has integrated the (more complex) EU trading registries with the Protocol's registries and by choosing to shadow the Protocol's assigned amount units (AAUs) with EU emission allowances.
32. C. Streck & J. Lin, 'Making Markets Work: A Review of CDM Performance and Need for Reform' (2008) 19(2) European Journal of International Law, pp. 409-42.
33. R.O. Keohane, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton University Press, 1984).
34. Justice Louis LeBel observed that '[a]s international law is generally non-binding or without effective control mechanisms, it does not suffice to simply state that international law requires a certain outcome': see (Justice) L. LeBel & G. Chao, 'The Rise of International Law in Canadian Constitutional Litigation: Fugue or Fusion? Recent Developments and Challenges in Internalizing International Law' (2002) 16 Supreme Court Law Review (2d), pp. 23-63, at 62.
35. 'Harper's Letter Dismisses Kyoto as "Socialist Scheme"', CBC News, Canada, 30 Jan. 2007, available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/ 2007/01/30/harper-kyoto.html
36. 'Harper Letter Called Kyoto a "Socialist Scheme"', Canadian Press, Canada, 30 Jan. 2007, available at: http://www.lilithgallery.com/ articles/environmental/Harper-Vs-Kyoto.html#Letter.
37. These general procedures consist of the control exerted by the European Commission acting as the 'keeper of the treaties', control which can lead to an action before the European Court of Justice (ECJ): Art. 258 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). A-S. Tabau & S. Maljean-Dubois, 'Non-compliance Mechanisms: Interaction between the Kyoto Protocol System and the European Union' (2010) 21(3) European Journal of International Law, pp. 749-63.
38. Joint Statement issued at the Conclusion of the Eighth BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change, 28 Aug. 2011, available at: http://www.info.gov.za/ speech/DynamicAction?pageid5461&sid521113&tid541020. The BASIC group of countries includes Brazil, South Africa, India, and China.
39. J. Depledge, 'Tracing the Origins of the Kyoto Protocol: An Article-by-Article Textual History', UNFCCC Technical Paper, FCCC/TP/2000/2, 25 Nov. 2000, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/tp/tp0200.pdf
40. L. MacFaul, 'Developing the Climate Regime: the Role of Verification', in R. Avenhaus, N. Kyriakopoulos, M. Richard & G. Stein (eds.), Verifying Treaty Compliance: Limiting Weapons of Mass Destruction and Monitoring Kyoto Protocol Provisions (Springer, 1996) p. 171-212, at 185.
41. UNFCCC, Decision 24/CP.7, 21 Jan. 2002, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/cop7/13a03.pdf.
42. UNFCCC, Decision 27/CMP.1, 30 Mar. 2006, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2005/cmp1/eng/08.pdf.
43. The compliance system of the Kyoto Protocol builds on the non-compliance procedure adopted under the Montreal Protocol (Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Montreal (Canada), 16 Sept. 1987, in force 1 Jan. 1989, available at: http://ozone.unep.org/new-site/en/montreal-protocol.php), that made one of the tasks of the Compliance Committee to 'identify the facts and possible causes relating to individual cases of non-compliance
44. see UNEP, 'Report of the Tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Annex II: Non-Compliance Procedure', UNEP Doc. OzL.Pro.10/9, 3 Dec. 1998, available at: http://ozone.unep.org/Meeting-Documents/mop/10mop/10mop-9.e.pdf.
45. J. Brunnée, 'Enforcement Mechanisms in International Law and International Environmental Law', in U. Beyerlin et al. (eds.), Ensuring Compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements: A Dialogue between Practitioners and Academia (Brill, 2005), pp. 1-23.
46. A. Chayes & A. Handler Chayes, The New Sovereignty: Compliance with International Regulatory Agreements (Harvard University Press, 1995), at p. 3.
47. In favour of sanctions as part of the international compliance mechanisms, see G.W. Downs, D.M. Rocke & P.N. Barsoom, 'Is the Good News about Compliance Good News about Cooperation?' (1996) 50 International Organization, pp. 379-406, at 382-7.
48. UNFCCC, Decision 27/CMP.1, n. 39 above, Annex V, para. 4.
49. N. 42 above. Non-compliance procedures (NCPs) have been negotiated under the following: the Montreal Protocol (n. 40 above); the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), Geneva (Switzerland), 13 Nov. 1979, in force 16 Mar. 1983, available at: http://www.unece.org/env/lrtap
50. the UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention), Espoo (Finland), 25 Feb. 1991, in force 10 Sept. 1997, available at: http://www.unece.org/env/eia
51. the Kyoto Protocol, n. 2 above
52. the Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention), Basel (Switzerland), 22 Mar. 1989, in force 5 May 1992, available at: http://www.basel.int
53. the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention), Aarhus (Denmark), 25 June 1998, in force 30 Oct. 2001, available at: http://www.unece.org/env/pp/welcome.html
54. the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Cartagena Biosafety Protocol),Montreal (Canada), 29 Jan. 2000, in force 11 Sept. 2003, available at:http://bch.cbd.int/protocol
55. the Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (Rotterdam PIC Convention), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), 11 Sept. 1998, in force 24 Feb. 2004, available at: http://www.pic.int
56. the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm POPs Convention), Stockholm(Sweden), 22 May 2001, in force 17 May 2004, available at: http://www.pops.int
57. the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), Rome (Italy), 3 Nov. 2001, in force 29 June 2004, available at: http://www.planttreaty.org.
58. UNFCC, Decision 27/CMP.1, n. 39 above.
59. The full reference to REDD1 includes sustainable forest management, the role of conservation, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
60. Project Catalyst, 'Towards a Global Climate Agreement', Synthesis Briefing Paper, June 2009, available at: http://www.project-catalyst.info/ images/publications/synthesis-paper1.pdf.
61. 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation: Approaches to Stimulate Action', submission by the Governments of Papua New Guinea & Costa Rica, to Item 6 of the provisional agenda of CP-11, 11 Nov. 2005, available at: http://www.rainforestcoalition.org/documents/COP-11AgendaItem6-Misc.Doc.FINAL. pdf.
62. UNFCCC, Decision 1/CP.16 (Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention) ('AWG-LCA Outcome'), Section III (C) & Annex I, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/ 2010/cop16/eng/07a01.pdf.
63. See, e.g., the activities undertaken in the context of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility by the World Bank, available at: http://www. forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp.