Chapter 22 - Climate change and the law

Abstract

Climate change sets many legal and regulatory challenges on how best to address global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Law has a critically important role, but, too often, its role is overlooked and misunderstood. At both national and international levels, law offers a system of adjudication, conflict resolution, and dispute settlement. Law provides environmental standards and a means to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies. The UK's Climate Change Act 2008 is a flagship of its kind providing a legal framework that incorporates many aspects of climate change together with a “net zero” emissions target by 2030. International as well as domestic law may offer solutions. It has to be admitted, however, that law has limitations largely dependent on policy makers and politicians who may find it politically impossible to adopt robust responses to climate change.