Multilateral Environmental Treaties Research Articles

Second Thoughts? The International Adjudication of Environmental Disputes 30 Years Later

Abstract The role of international adjudication with respect to environmental disputes has been a matter of significant debate, particularly since the late 1980s. Scepticism about the creation of an international environmental court, the lack of use of specialised environmental chambers and the rise of non-compliance procedures largely supported the view that international adjudication had a limited role to play in this context. This conventional view is today being reconsidered. This is due in part to the surge in domestic climate litigation but also, as argued in this brief contribution, to the potential of international adjudication to address the challenges that had once supported arguments against it, namely (1) the ambiguity and indeterminacy of substantive provisions in multilateral environmental treaties; (2) States’ own capacity limitations to discharge their duties under such treaties, and (3) the need for treaty regimes to accommodate changing social, economic, political and, of course, environmental circumstances.

Abandonment/decommissioning under Nigerian legal regimes: A comparative analysis

The overall objective of this article is to analyse critically the legal instruments that regulate decommissioning of onshore and offshore platforms in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry vis-à-vis other jurisdictions such as The United States of America (USA) and United Kingdom (UK) with a view to making requisite recommendations for improvement in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry. This article in its introductory part will be devoted to conceptual clarifications of decommissioning and abandonment and differences (if any). Part two is the critical analysis of legislations on decommissioning in Nigeria. Part three is also a critical analysis on legal regimes and practices on decommissioning in other jurisdictions such as USA and UK. Part four is a comparative analysis of legislations and decommissioning practices in Nigeria and other jurisdiction. Part five consists of findings/recommendations made during the research. In the end, conclusions are drawn, part of which is a call for proactive actions by megacorporation and the Nigerian government in the sphere of timeous decommissioning of obsolete and failed platforms, enactment and, or, review of obsolete legislations regulating decommissioning as well as fulfilment of obligations under multilateral environmental treaties that regulate decommissioning and sustainable environmental management and protection.

Global governance in forestry: a cross-national analysis

ABSTRACT On the one hand, researchers argue that global governance in forestry is fragmented and ineffective. On the other hand, some argue that global forestry governance is key to reducing forest loss related to climate change issues. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression for a sample of 155 nations, this research tests the association between one type of global governance, the number of ratifications of environmental treaties that include obligations to reduce forest loss for each nation, and forest loss from 2001 to 2014. As a whole, it appears that despite a lack of unification of multilateral environmental treaties that address forest loss and the absence of a global forestry convention, multilateral forestry treaties are effective at reducing forest loss. While there are several important programs and initiatives from global forestry governance treaties impact forest loss, the effect is relatively small compared to other factors.

WTO Jurisprudence on Protection of Marine Living Resources: Policy Considerations for the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative

The World Trade Organization (WTO) aims at free trade between states. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) supports these aims. By improving infrastructure on the Maritime Silk Road, it facilitates the transport of goods. But the likely increase in transport of goods on the Silk Road may have a negative impact on the environment. This paper addresses whether states can use environmental concerns under WTO law as a legitimate obstacle to trade on the Maritime Silk Road. Under WTO law, WTO Members may apply trade-restricting measures to protect the environment. The balance between the protection of the environment and free trade has materialized in a number of cases in the WTO dispute settlement system. This paper focuses on two questions. First, it discusses whether a state can apply WTO law to protect marine living resources if they are outside the territory of the state. Second, it discusses whether pollution from transport of goods can be a legitimate reason to apply the WTO exceptions to protect the environment. The WTO quasi-judiciaries have accepted harvest methods of shrimps, harvest methods of tuna, and seal hunting as legitimate reasons, but have so far not tried pollution from transport. The paper concludes that states may protect migrating marine living resources outside their territories, and that restrictions on transport to protect marine living resources is a legitimate policy under WTO law. However, the legitimate basis for limiting vessels is reduced if there is strong enforcement of the environmental policies, which China has suggested in its BRI policies, and if China in general engages widely in multilateral environmental treaties. However, should China not take a lead in the protection of marine living resources and in seeking compliance with international environmental law, China becomes vulnerable to other states’ protectionist measures under the guise of protection of the marine living resources.

Global governance for climate justice: A cross-national analysis of CO2 emissions

Sustainable energy transitions are key to achieving climate justice for all. Carbon dioxide emissions’ (CO2) unequal distribution globally is one of the many issues preventing climate justice. Efforts to reduce global CO2 impacts are vital for environmental justice efforts and a future free from climate change issues. Researchers have long been interested in how the rise of global governance initiatives, such as multilateral treaties, impact environmental outcomes across the world. However, little is known about how global governance concerning energy usage and technologies impacts CO2 emissions across the world. Using two-way fixed effects regression analysis from 1996 to 2011, we test how 24 multilateral environmental treaties with an energy focus impact CO2 emissions per capita, CO2 emissions as a percentage of gross domestic product, and total CO2 emissions for 162 nations. The multilateral energy treaties were collected from Ecolex. This analysis assesses how the legitimacy of global contracts may impact actual decreases in CO2 emissions, resulting in climate justice outcomes. Additionally, this analysis considers how factors of institutional state governance, including control of corruption, rule of law, political stability, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality moderate the impact of multilateral energy environmental treaties and CO2 emissions. We find that stocks of environmental treaty ratification are associated with decreases in all three types of CO2 emissions. Renewable energy consumption, GDP per capita, and urban and total population are associated with increased CO2 emissions. We also find some support for the idea that treaties are associated with larger decreases in emissions in nations with higher levels of state governance. Understanding how state accountability, transparency, and legitimacy factor into the effectiveness of multilateral environmental treaties on reducing CO2 emissions is essential to combating climate change issues.

A INFLUÊNCIA DOS TRATADOS AMBIENTAIS MULTILATERAIS RELATIVOS AO CLIMA NA EFETIVIDADE DO DIREITO AMBIENTAL NO BRASIL

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar a relação entre o conteúdo dos tratados ambientais multilaterais relativos ao clima ratificados pelo Brasil e as políticas públicas por este realizadas. Parte-se da hipótese de que quanto mais específico o tratado nas obrigações a serem atingidas, quanto maiores os esforços e as conquistas dos negociadores internacionais em realizar um texto mais consistente, maior e mais efetiva é a produção normativa-institucional brasileira no mesmo tema. Para tanto, a análise será feita por meio de uma matriz de análise composta por critérios de efetividade os quais serão aplicados tanto nos tratados, quanto nas normas e instituições criadas pelo governo brasileiro. Conclui-se que os textos ambientais internacionais ratificados pelo Brasil exercem grande influência nas políticas públicas ambientais brasileiras, exigindo uma similitude na aplicação positiva dos critérios, pois somente dessa forma o direito brasileiro poderá tornar o tratado ambiental responsivo no plano doméstico. dI

The ‘Global Pact for the Environment’ – A New Instrument to Protect the Planet?

This article aims to shed light on the newly proposed initiative to negotiate a ‘Global Pact for the Environment’. After an overview of the Pact, the article discusses the main provisions of the current draft of the Pact, such as the right to live in an ecologically sound environment, the codification of existing environmental principles and the introduction of new principles. The article examines the relationship between the Pact and existing multilateral environmental agreements and institutions and comes to the conclusion that the stated intention for the Pact to serve as a ‘legal umbrella’ for the existing multilateral environmental treaties raises both political as well as legal questions. Furthermore, the Pact possesses only limited potential to strengthen international environmental law. Nonetheless, the initiative has the potential to trigger reforms in international environmental law by putting the protection of the environment at the top of the global agenda.

Evaluation of Multi-Frequency SAR Images for Tropical Land Cover Mapping

Earth Observation (EO) data plays a major role in supporting surveying compliance of several multilateral environmental treaties, such as UN-REDD+ (United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). In this context, land cover maps of remote sensing data are the most commonly used EO products and development of adequate classification strategies is an ongoing research topic. However, the availability of meaningful multispectral data sets can be limited due to cloud cover, particularly in the tropics. In such regions, the use of SAR systems (Synthetic Aperture Radar), which are nearly independent form weather conditions, is particularly promising. With an ever-growing number of SAR satellites, as well as the increasing accessibility of SAR data, potentials for multi-frequency remote sensing are becoming numerous. In our study, we evaluate the synergistic contribution of multitemporal L-, C-, and X-band data to tropical land cover mapping. We compare classification outcomes of ALOS-2, RADARSAT-2, and TerraSAR-X datasets for a study site in the Brazilian Amazon using a wrapper approach. After preprocessing and calculation of GLCM texture (Grey Level Co-Occurence), the wrapper utilizes Random Forest classifications to estimate scene importance. Comparing the contribution of different wavelengths, ALOS-2 data perform best in terms of overall classification accuracy, while the classification of TerraSAR-X data yields higher accuracies when compared to the results achieved by RADARSAT-2. Moreover, the wrapper underlines potentials of multi-frequency classification as integration of multi-frequency images is always preferred over multi-temporal, mono-frequent composites. We conclude that, despite distinct advantages of certain sensors, for land cover classification, multi-sensoral integration is beneficial.

Transnational delegation in global environmental governance: When do non‐state actors govern?

AbstractNon‐state actors – including firms, non‐governmental organizations, and networks – are now a permanent fixture in environmental politics. However, we know surprisingly little about when states choose to delegate to non‐state actors through multilateral treaties. This paper provides an historical picture, tracing patterns of delegation to non‐state agents in a random sample of multilateral environmental agreements from 1902 to 2002. I introduce a new unit of analysis – the policy function – to understand what non‐state actors actually do as agents. I find that analyses of delegation are sensitive to the unit of analysis; patterns of delegation at the treaty level are very different from those at the level of individual policy functions. While overall the decision to delegate to non‐state actors – what I term transnational delegation – is rare, it has grown over time. Complex treaties, those with secretariats, and those focused on the management of nature are more apt to delegate to non‐state actors. Non‐state agents fill a small, but growing role in multilateral environmental treaties.

Transboundary pipelines and the Arctic: legal issues

In the universal sources of modern international law, the regime of cross-border pipelines is set out only in general terms. It is true even regarding the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides the most developed regulations relating to laying such pipelines. National legal rules applicable to laying pipelines, however, in practice provide for additional requirements which go beyond conventional rules. Relevant national laws are often based on international environmental law, including multilateral environmental treaties. Existing regional treaties providing regulations on cross-border pipelines are most often also of a framework nature.

Rosyjska agresja na Krym i jej wpływ na środowisko człowieka: kilka uwag z perspektywy międzynarodowego prawa środowiska

The article analyzes the impact of Russian aggression and occupation of Ukrainian Crimea on local, regional and global environment. The author concludes that this aggression will have a lot of dangerous consequences for environment: scuttling which is a form of dumping, dangers to world cultural heritage, risks of unjustified oil and gas offshore operations in the Black Sea continental shelf, the use of dolphins for military purposes and the possibility of construction of a nuclear power station. One of the results of Russian occupation will be the deterioration of environmental protection in the whole Black Sea region, because Russia is not a party to many key multilateral environmental treaties.

Green, Jessica F. 2014. Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Green, Jessica F. 2014. Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Access to Environmental Justice in Oil Pollution and Gas Flaring Cases as a Human Right Issue in Nigeria

Nigeria, the most populous nation in black Africa, rich in oil and gas reserves but underdeveloped has her own share of environmental problems which justify local and international attention. In terms of Nigeria’s environmental problems, the four broad issues being accorded highest priority are the following:1. Ensuring sustainable industrial production: With the exception of the petroleum industry, most industries do not have waste treatment systems. The few treatment plants that do exist either are not functioning as a result of over use or lack of proper servicing or are unable to cope with the vast amounts and types of industrial effluents passing through them. The real challenges of industrial pollution can be identified thus: (a) air pollution (gas or particle emissions), especially from the cement, steel and asbestos industries; (b) land and water pollution -- effluent discharged onto land and into water has become a great concern, particularly in view of the epidemic tendencies of such pollution. The pharmaceutical, chemical, textile, food processing and oil industries are the major polluters; and (c) noise pollution.2. Preventing and reversing desertification: Nigeria has lost about 351000 square kilometres of its land to the desert, and the desert is advancing at a yearly rate of 0.6 kilometres. Desertification is the most important problem for northern Nigeria. Entire settlements, and in some cases major access roads, were buried by sand dunes in some parts of the north quite recently.3. Managing forest, wildlife and natural resources: Deforestation and loss of wildlife resources are problems throughout the nation. Deforestation affects timber production and the production of non-wood products (such as medicines, food and paper) that are obtained from the wood. There has been a ban on the export of wood obtained from natural forest since 1976, but much of the deforestation that occurs is the result of using wood for domestic purposes.Hunting is a major cause of loss of wildlife. There is a need to protect wildlife and biodiversity by specifically providing for the protection of certain species and areas that are of scientific, recreational or aesthetic value.4. Combating floods and inland and coastal erosion: Nigeria’s coastal resources have been greatly damaged by erosion and this has had severe financial consequences. Research into methods of controlling floods and erosion is being promoted. The need to use law as a vehicle in the regulation, management and protection of the environment has thus become paramount. The importance of the environment to humankind, the consumer of the environment cannot be over emphasized. In view of the fact that the environment is a major source of national and international development, it must be protected from pollution, degradation or damage. Since a pollution of the environment could result in its decay, which will ultimately affect meaningful social and economic development as well as the quality of life of humankind and other species of biodiversity, environmental law prescribes litigation to protect and preserve the environment from any misuse, abuse or destruction. And this is made possible by the law in the light of the violatory provisions of the municipal jurisprudence, coupled with the array of multilateral environmental treaties and rules of international law. Aggrieved parties therefore resort to environmental litigation in accordance with the procedure laid down by law. It is through litigation that courts enjoy their unique role in upholding the environmental rule of law.It is against this background that this paper seeks to realize the following objectives: 1. To examine the nature and scope of access to environmental Justice; 2. To analyze the liability regime in oil pollution and the role of the Judiciary in promoting the rule of law in regard to principle;3. To determine the nature of environmental litigation;4. To examine judicial approach to some of the common problems that arise in the different types of environmental litigation, including issues of locus standing, representative suit, jurisdiction, burden of proof and judicial remedies;5. To highlight the trend in public interest litigation in other jurisdictions;6. To conclude with some recommendations.

US presidents and the failure to ratify multilateral environmental agreements

Whereas the US President signed the Kyoto Protocol, the failure of the US Congress to ratify it seriously hampered subsequent international climate cooperation. This recent US trend, of signing environmental treaties but failing to ratify them, could thwart attempts to come to a future climate agreement. Two complementary explanations of this trend are proposed. First, the political system of the US has distinct institutional features that make it difficult for presidents to predict whether the Senate will give its advice and consent to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and whether Congress will pass the required enabling legislation. Second, elected for a fixed term, US presidents might benefit politically from supporting MEAs even when knowing that legislative support is not forthcoming. Four policy implications are explored, concerning the scope for unilateral presidential action, the potential for bipartisan congressional support, the effectiveness of a treaty without the US, and the prospects for a deep, new climate treaty. Policy relevance Why does the failure of US ratification of multilateral environmental treaties occur? This article analyses the domestic political mechanisms involved in cases of failed US ratification. US non-participation in global environmental institutions often has serious ramifications. For example, it sharply limited Kyoto's effectiveness and seriously hampered international climate negotiations for years. Although at COP 17 in Durban the parties agreed to negotiate a new agreement by 2015, a new global climate treaty may well trigger a situation resembling the one President Clinton faced in 1997 when he signed Kyoto but never obtained support for it in the Senate. US failure to ratify could thwart future climate agreements.

Automatic Detection of Rivers in High-Resolution SAR Data

Remote sensing plays a major role in supporting decision-making and surveying compliance of several multilateral environmental treaties. In this paper, we present an approach for supporting monitoring compliance of river networks in context of the European Water Framework Directive. Only a few approaches have been developed for extracting river networks from satellite data and usually they require manual input, which seems not feasible for automatic and operational application. We propose a method for the automatic extraction of river structures in TerraSAR-X data. The method is based on mathematical morphology and supervised image classification, using automatically selected training samples. The method is applied on TerraSAR-X images from two different study sites. In addition, the results are compared to an alternative method, which requires manual user interaction. The detailed accuracy assessment shows that the proposed method achieves accurate results (Kappa ~ 0.7) and performs almost similar in terms of accuracy, when compared to the alternative approach. Moreover, the proposed method can be applied on various datasets (e.g., multitemporal, multisensoral and multipolarized) and does not require any additional user input. Thus, the highly flexible approach is interesting in terms of operational monitoring systems and large scale applications.

Compliance with Global Environmental Policy

In political science, legal and economic literature, there has been a lot of debate on how to achieve an optimal compliance especially with multi-lateral environmental treaties. This chapter attempts to present the literature indicating under what conditions compliance with global environmental policy can be achieved and which factors may endanger compliance. First, compliance is distinguished from other concepts such as implementation, effectiveness or enforcement. Next, sources of compliance and non-compliance are indicated. It is explained that sometimes the primary rules of a treaty regime may already induce either compliance or non-compliance. A lot of attention is paid to literature concerning the so-called new sovereignty, promoting a more managerial approach towards environmental compliance. The Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer is considered as an example of such a managerial primary rule system and is hence discussed. Also, non-compliance response systems are discussed and it is shown how also the managerial approach can play a role in that respect.

The application of international environmental law in armed conflicts

The article deals with the problem of environment protection during armed conflicts. The authors primarily focus on examining the possibility of applying international environmental law in armed conflicts. In the first part of the paper, the authors provide an overview of relevant rules of international humanitarian law which are important for environment protection and contained in different sources of law governing this area (international treaties, international customs and general principles). In this part, the authors point out to the weaknesses and shortcomings of the IHL environmental provisions, including both the traditional rules which have an indirect effect on environment protection and the contemporary rules which in most cases directly protect the environment. The second part of the article deals with the rules of international environmental law applicable in armed conflicts. The authors first examine the possibility of applying multilateral environmental treaties in armed conflicts. In that context, the authors point out to different types of such treaties, with specific reference to the treaties which do not contain provisions on their applicability during armed conflicts. Further on, the authors analyze the application of customary environmental rules in armed conflicts. These rules are considerably less important than international treaties and they commonly comprise a few general principles which may be considered nowadays as the rules of customary law. Finally, the authors explore the possibility of applying the rules of environmental soft law, such as the rules contained in different declarations and resolutions adopted at international conferences or within the framework of international organizations.

6. Nordic Countries

Norway did not ratify or accede to any multilateral environmental treaties of interest during 2012. Norway is actively promoting bilateral co-operation. It has recently supported the establishment of a Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law in Chennai, India, which will focus on ten selected policy areas, including genetic resources, alien species, the establishment of a nature index, and ecosystem services. Norway also continues its strong support of the UN program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). It paid significant REDD+ contributions to Guyana and Brazil in 2012 and entered into a new agreement with Vietnam. As has been mentioned in previous reports, Norway continues to implement measures to reduce the damage inflicted by the Chernobyl disaster. Based on the experiences gained, Norway and Ukraine have signed an agreement on co-operation in nuclear and radiation safety, aimed at decommissioning the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and transforming the 'shelter object' into an ecologically safe system.

Flexibility provisions in multilateral environmental treaties

In international politics, intergovernmental treaties provide the rules of the game. Similar to private law, treaty designers face a trade-off between flexibility to adjust to unforeseen contingencies and the danger that the binding nature of the treaty and hence, the level of commitment by treaty members, is being undermined if the treaty can be amended too easily. In this paper, we address this problem in the analytical framework of institutional economics, drawing in particular on the incomplete contracts literature. Furthermore, we derive preliminary hypotheses and operational concepts for the measurement of flexibility in international treaties. Based on 400 treaties and supplementary agreements from the field of international environmental law, we provide new insights into the combined application of rules for adoption and entry into force of amendments, as well as provisions for conflict resolution and interpretative development. Using correspondence analysis, we show that treaty provisions can be represented in a two-dimensional property space, where treaties can be arrayed according to the degree of institutionalisation as well as along a flexibility dimension.

Waiting for Godot: Sustainable development, international trade and governance in environmental policies

The current environmental crisis calls for a sustainable style of development and draws attention to a new ecological dimension in social life that poses hitherto unforeseen challenges to the social sciences and to the everyday concerns of citizens, governments and private interests. Consequently, it is appropriate to attempt a critical overview of governance issues around the formation and implementation of environmental policies designed under the framework of sustainable development. After a brief introduction on how global perceptions about sustainable development have evolved, this article subsequently focuses attention on the main thrust of the emerging international environmental regime, and the multilateral environmental treaties embodied in it. Specific governance issues pertaining to environmental policies are also critically reviewed, particularly interrelations with the trade regime. The article concludes by spelling out some comments on research issues for the future, with a view to charting the environmental governance agenda lying ahead of us.