National Environmental Law Research Articles

Development and industrial application of catalyzer for low-temperature hydrogenation hydrolysis of Claus tail gas

With the implementation of more strict national environmental protection laws, energy conservation, emission reduction and clean production will present higher requirements for sulfur recovery tail gas processing techniques and catalyzers. As for Claus tail gas, conventional hydrogenation catalyzers are gradually being replaced by low-temperature hydrogenation catalyzers. This paper concentrates on the development of technologies for low-temperature hydrogenation hydrolysis catalyzers, preparation of such catalyzers and their industrial application. In view of the specific features of SO2 hydrogenation and organic sulfur hydrolysis during low-temperature hydrogenation, a new technical process involving joint application of hydrogenation catalyzers and hydrolysis catalyzers was proposed. In addition, low-temperature hydrogenation catalyzers and low-temperature hydrolysis catalyzers suitable for low-temperature conditions were developed. Joint application of these two kinds of catalyzers may reduce the inlet temperatures in the conventional hydrogenation reactors from 280 °C to 220 °C, at the same time, hydrogenation conversion rates of SO2 can be enhanced to over 99%. To further accelerate the hydrolysis rate of organic sulfur, the catalyzers for hydrolysis of low-temperature organic sulfur were developed. In lab tests, the volume ratio of the total sulfur content in tail gas can be as low as 131 × 10−6 when these two kinds of catalyzers were used in a proportion of 5:5 in volumes. Industrial application of these catalyzers was implemented in 17 sulfur recovery tail gas processing facilities of 15 companies. As a result, Sinopec Jinling Petrochemical Company had outstanding application performances with a tail gas discharging rate lower than 77.9 mg/m3 and a total sulfur recovery of 99.97%.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management in Romania. Harmonizing National Environmental Law with the UE Legislation

This article presents the institutional and legal framework in the field of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) management and elements of environmental impact in conditions that are not complying with the regulations on the WEEE management. The study is based on the description of the WEEE management in Romania in the context of harmonizing national environmental law with European Directives. High amounts of WEEE and the limited capacities for disposal and recycling, related to the necessity of transposing the European Union legislation into national law became a problem for WEEE management in Romania.

Local bureaucrats as bricoleurs. The everyday implementation practices of county environment officers in rural Kenya

Bricolage in natural resource governance takes place through the interplay of a variety of actors. This article explores the practices of a group whose agency as bricoleurs has received little attention, namely the government officers who represent the state in the everyday management of water, land, forests and other resources across rural Africa. Specifically we examine how local Environment Officers in Taita Taveta County in Kenya go about implementing the national environmental law on the ground, and how they interact with communities in this process. As representatives of “the local state”, the Environment Officers occupy an ambiguous position in which they are expected to implement lofty laws and policies with limited means and in a complex local reality. In response to this they employ three key practices, namely (i) working through personal networks, (ii) tailoring informal agreements, and (iii) delegating public functions and authority to civil society. As a result, the environmental law is to a large extent implemented through a blend of formal and informal rules and governance arrangements, produced through the interplay of the Environment Officers, communities and other local actors.

Lake Vänern: A historical outline

Although Lake Vänern is the largest freshwater reservoir in Western Europe, it remains relatively unknown to the scientific community outside of Scandinavia. Therefore, we aim to give a brief outline of the lake and its geological history, in particular the landscape transformation, resource utilization, pollution history, and environmental development of the region. The landscape around Lake Vänern was shaped into its present form during the latest glaciations some 10,000 years ago. Large variation exists in its tributaries, with forest in the north and agricultural areas in the south. Human influence on the landscape was relatively small until the mid-18th century. Later, in the mid-19th century, the agriculture, forestry and shipping industries underwent large transformations as the towns around the lake grew and the economy changed. Development of fishing equipment, processes and changes in catching methods industrialized the fishing industry after mid-20th century. In the 1960s the lake was considered to be one of the most heavily mercury-polluted lakes in the world. After the passing of the first national environmental protection law in Sweden the lake turned into a success story: It has been declared to be healthy. However, old pollution still affects the fishing industry. With this new focus on the environment, the scientific community started to be interested in the lake. The lake has also played a very important role as the largest hydropower reservoir in Sweden. Here, too, the environmental question is in focus and the effects of the water regulation are still under debate. The result has been loss of biodiversity and an increased risk of an inflow of invasive species from international shipping. However, still many questions remain to be answered regarding the lake and effect of ongoing climate change on the sustainable development of the lake region.

National Forest Parks development through Internet technologies for economic perspectives

National Forest Parks are protected under national and international environment laws because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. Since they provide economic perspectives through recreational and tourism opportunities for the public, the visitors’ overuse and the supplementary development of facilities and services in these protected areas are the main threats to their ecological integrity. Within the current digital innovations, Internet has become a viable alternative business channel and many firms have already created their internet presence. The aim of the paper is to study the employ of internet technologies in Greek National Forest Parks for economic perspectives and rank the websites, respectively. Internet presence of Greek National Forest Parks is evaluated qualitatively according to their content, used as criteria. Following, the multicriteria method of PROMETHEE II is applied for the total ranking. Furthermore, the optimum National Forest Parks internet presences are identified and described to be used as models with the total exploitation of internet technologies. Finally, necessary recommendations for website optimization are presented.

THE GROWTH IN ENERGY ACTIVITIES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA – ARE WE TRULY PREPARED?

ABSTRACT Stretching from Singapore and the Strait of Malacca chokepoint in the southwest to the Strait of Taiwan in the northeast, the South China Sea is one of the most important energy trade routes in the world. Almost a third of global crude oil and over half of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) passes through the South China Sea each year. Coupled with the significant economy growth from China, that is the world's largest oil importer, protecting the flow of oil becomes a prime consideration of the South East and East Asia governments. All of these factors make the South China Sea to hold one of the highest potential for oil spill, be it by quantity of oil or frequency of energy activities. In the region, our industry faces increasing political challenge due to the disputed territorial waters and hence if an incident affecting multiple countries such as an oil spill occurs, the response may be chaotic if not adequately prepared for. The duty is on industry to work with regional governmental groups to promote joined-up response that is sufficiently robust and flexible to deal with both marine and well-control incidents. Other factors that could pose a major challenge are the understanding of response tool kits and prioritization given to national environmental laws and regulations which will vary amongst the affected administrations. Has there been sufficient investigation into the range of national laws which could help/hinder inter-regional approach? What about each of the area contingency plan along the South China Sea? Is there sufficient data on the crude oil characteristics in this region and the availability of Stockpile of equipment along this stretch of the trade route? This paper provides an overview of the oil industry's response to the growing energy activities in the South China Sea using case studies to illustrate the situations that are still occurring in practice.

Local Environmental Enforcement Constrained by Central–Local Relations in China

ABSTRACTEnvironmental pollution has become a major health concern and has escalated to a major political issue in China. It has been identified that enforcement of environmental regulation is the weakest link in environmental protection. Local government is often the focus of study because of its legal obligation for enforcement under national environmental law, and for its significance in the complex and intriguing central–local relations in the Chinese government system. We propose an interpretative framework to explain the local environmental enforcement dilemma in China, based on an institutional approach. Local governments tend to underperform. We argue that the overall national institutional environment that defines central–local relations in both political and financial terms is key for explaining why local governments fail to meet their obligations. Local governments tend to promote economic growth and maximize tax revenue, by attracting external investment and protecting polluting businesses, at the expense of environmental quality. Inadequate disclosure of environmental data and occasionally intentionally distorting information obstruct public participation and supervision – a key factor for ensuring the accountability of local enforcement. The policy implications of this analysis are that central government, in its capacity as the rule‐maker, must take action to adjust the existing central–local relations with respect to the political promotion system and the tax‐sharing mechanism. In addition, more stringent procedures and standards must be made by central government regarding the disclosure of environmental data to enable effective public participation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Public Participation in Environmental Matters and Trade in GMO's

The international and national environmental law have attempted to react the challenges posed by the developing biotech industries in the last decades, and several efforts have been made in order to improve the transparency and to give opportunity to the public to get involved in all relevant stages of the decision-making procedures on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). One of the striking examples could be the Aarhus Convention, which itself does not contain large set of rules regarding the GMOs, but Almaty Amendment, still under ratification, will result essential changes in this regard. Consequently the following paper aims at analyzing whether the framework of the Aarhus Convention is eligible to give a tool to the growing public awareness regarding the trade in GMOs and to show how can the general and specific provisions of the Convention be applied in that field.

2012 National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Problem

2012 National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Problem

Regulating Geoengineering Research through Domestic Environmental Protection Frameworks: Reflections on the Recent Canadian Ocean Fertilization Case

Field experiments related to the development of geoengineering technologies are now occurring in an increasing number of countries. Such projects are raising important questions about the adequacy of national environmental protection laws (EPLs) for regulating geoengineering activities, including their ability to enforce emerging international norms for geoengineering research.This article considers the application of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to a 2012 controversy over ocean iron fertilization off the coast of British Columbia. This incident provides an important precedent for analyzing existing domestic legislation and administrative measures being called upon to regulate geoengineering activities outside of the laboratory. To date, the attention of legal scholars has mostly focused on the content and adequacy of international rules. However, as this case illustrates, the interpretation and implementation of these rules in domestic legal systems is critically important, as it is predominantly within domestic frameworks that such rules have direct legal effect on private and non-governmental actors. Our analysis highlights some key challenges for EPLs in regulating geoengineering activities, and draws some tentative conclusions regarding the structure of domestic environmental protection frameworks for regulating geoengineering research.

English

Most industries are sited with little or no consideration for environmental and social consequences, especially in developing countries. This has led to the discharge of genotoxic chemicals used for many purposes in the manufacturing processes into environmental compartments such as air, water, soil and sediments. Results of the cytotoxic and genotoxic assays of these wastewaters on Allium cepa root tip meristem showed significant reduction of mitotic indices and diverse forms of chromosomal aberrations, cytokinetic failures, micro and multiple nuclei. In Nigeria, the results of diverse assessments of industrial effluents have shown that they are environmental risks and potential mutagenic agents, problems still exist in the enforcement of on ground sound legislative by Federal Ministry of Environment and Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Failure in implementation of sound policies has been identified to be caused by weakness and poor enforcement by the necessary arms of the government, public awareness of international, national and local environmental laws. Legislation and standards that apply to existing and proposed projects are grossly lacking, the absence of mandatory disclosure of information by industries hinders monitoring which is a major problem to compliance and enforcement. Furthermore, there is absence of a legal framework which would ensure that industries comply with the requirement of standing environmental legislation. Any development that does not respect the environment cannot be said to be sustainable. There is therefore the need to integrate the environmental legislatives and environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports in the establishment and consequent monitoring of industries and industrial activities for the establishment and promotion of sustainable development and sound technologies.   Key words: Genotoxic, Allium test, industry, legislation, wastewater.

Localizing Climate Change Action

Waiting for national- and supranational-level actors to reach a broadly based and substantively effective agreement on climate change mitigation is like waiting for Godot – unlikely to happen, at least at a substantively early enough point in time. The December 2012 negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) umbrella yet again demonstrated the problem in seeking widely accepted action from close to two hundred nations with widely divergent interests in climate change and the related underlying issues. This article adds new value to existing scholarship by conducting original research into select climate initiatives at the sub-national, sub-state level in order to find out whether it is worth pursuing climate change action at this level instead. The article posits that in times with little or severely delayed climate change action by national and supranational actors, it is worth pursuing climate change action at the local – but not the purely private – level. After identifying what “success” means in the climate change arena, the article analyzes the potential for both substantive and procedural success presented by select local initiatives. Some of these feature traditional adversarial enforcement methods, some feature modern collaborative-style enforcement, some feature no enforcement at all, and one is a reporting program with mandatory implications. This article demonstrates how action at the scaled-down level can be effective whether traditional adversarial, or more collaborative goal enforcement methods are applied, and perhaps even if no enforcement methods are applied at all. The article builds on the author’s parallel project, An Unstoppable Tide: Creating Environmental and Human Rights Law from the Bottom Up. This article analyzes bottom-up, polycentric developments within national and international environmental and human rights law in general. It argues that bottom-up, polycentric action presents viable alternatives to traditional top-down action within these areas and presents a set of guidelines for the development and enforcement of law that apply to action within climate change and thus to this article as well.

An Unstoppable Tide: Creating Environmental and Human Rights Law from the Bottom Up

This article argues that bottom-up, polycentric developments within national and international environmental and human rights law present potent alternatives to traditional top-down solutions, especially in relation to problems that require urgent legal action such as climate change. The article does not suggest that traditional solutions are no longer called for. Rather, it promotes action from both angles.By way of background, the article briefly examines what “law” is, how law is more and more frequently developed at the local level with public participation (i.e. from the “bottom up”) as well as the pros and cons of such development. The article describes the recognized interface between severe environmental problems and human rights issues. It then presents the findings of the author’s original research into how human rights and climate change issues are attacked in innovative ways and from the bottom up in four select American cities and in London, England. Many scholarly articles have written lamenting the lack of scaled-up action within both human rights and, especially, environmental law. This article presents new value by setting forth guidelines and principles for bottom-up approaches to legal problems in these areas. Scholars, policymakers and legal practitioners may benefit from this research.

Biorremediación en suelos contaminados con hidrocarburos en Colombia

Se revisan los procesos de Biorremediación de suelos contaminados con hidrocarburos en Colombia, como una alternativa sostenible frente al deterioro progresivo de la calidad del medio ambiente por el derrame de hidrocarburos. En la legislación ambiental en Colombia y en el mundo, todo residuo contaminado con hidrocarburos es considerado un residuo peligroso; por lo tanto, no puede ser dispuesto en suelo, aguas o incinerado a cielo abierto, lo que ha motivado a empresas del país en el mundo a implementar procesos de tratamiento de lodos contaminados. En Colombia las empresas petroleras, han venido implementando la biorremediación de lodos contaminados con hidrocarburos como alternativas, para el manejo de residuos resultantes de los derrames que se presentan en las actividades de explotación, refinación, transporte y distribución del producto. Estas prácticas deben ser consideradas sustentables por su fácil implementación, por los bajos costos que generan la operación y aplicación del proceso y por el beneficio para el medio ambiente. Entre los impactos positivos que estas prácticas han generado, se puede considerar las siguientes: solución a la problemática de generación de lodos contaminados con hidrocarburos, alternativas<br />de disposición final de los mismos sin afectar los recursos suelo, agua y aire, el bajo costo en la operación y experiencia técnica de desarrollo sostenible que puede continuar implementándose en empresas similares donde se presenten este tipo de residuos peligrosos.

Judicial Dialogue and Judicial Competition and Global Environmental Law: A Case Study on the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters

The mutual relation and influence of international environmental law and national environmental law has been studied, from both a top-down and as well as a bottom-up perspective: the orthodox analysis of the consequences of international environmental law for national law and policy has been combined with an analysis starting from national law, looking into the influences national law exerts upon international law. Yet, it is submitted that there is another dimension emerging in this mutual relationship. This dimension reflects a more ‘horizontal’ approach in the sense that the main focus is the relationship between national and international actors who exchange information, decisions, rulings, opinions and ideas about how international environmental law rules, institutions, principles and concepts should or could be fleshed out and further developed.This paper focuses on the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on legal protection in environmental matters and will discuss how judicial dialogue and judicial competition between the various bodies, courts, tribunals, etc., on both the national and international level, contribute to the emergence of a global environmental law on legal protection in environmental matters. In particular the interplay between the Aarhus Compliance Committee, the European Court of Justice, and the supreme national administrative courts of e.g. Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands will be highlighted.

Innovation subject to sustainability: the European policy on biofuels and its effects on innovation in the Brazilian bioethanol industry

Biofuels are a suitable complement for fossil energy in the transport sector and bioethanol is the main biofuel traded worldwide. Based on the assumption that innovation can be influenced by regulation, the Brazilian bioethanol industry is facing new requirements from external actors while reaching for international markets. Until 2010, national environmental laws were the main sustainability instrument that the biofuel industry faced. With the introduction of sustainability criteria for biofuels in the European Fuels Quality Directive (FQD) and Renewable Energy Directive (RED) of 2009, bioethanol producers have been pressured to innovate in respect of the requirements of future markets. Here, the aim is to analyse the case of Brazil, given the potential exports of sugarcane-based ethanol from this country to the EU. Brazil provides an interesting overview of how a bioethanol industry innovated while facing sustainability requirements in the past. A comparison between the European requirements and the industry´s status quo is then explored. The EU criteria are likely to have effects on the Brazilian bioethanol industry and incremental improvements in sustainability levels might take place based on the sustainability requirements. In addition, the industry could follow two other paths, namely risk diversification by engaging in multi-output models; and market leakage towards less-regulated markets. At the same time, an environmental overregulation of the biofuel market may make it more difficult for emerging biofuel industries in other countries, especially in Africa, by creating a barrier rather than contributing to its expansion. The results of this analysis show the main challenges to be addressed and the potential positive and negative impacts of the European Union biofuels policy on the Brazilian bioethanol industry.

Afghanistan: rich resource base and existing environmental despoliation

Because of its climatically stressed dry land and high altitudes, coupled with severe human despoliation amid three decades of war and known rampant corruption, Afghanistan has long had severe environmental problems. Overgrazing, deforestation, “deshrubification,” soil erosion, soil salinization, ground and surface water contamination and water overuse beyond natural recharge, climate change, threats to biodiversity, and natural hazards are the background problems already causing strong environmental stress. With the advent of the newly recognized mineral resources that will be exploited, additional environmental stressors are likely. Agencies of the United Nations, in concert with new national environmental laws and programs, offer some potential for remediation of environmental problems in the face of unrelenting societal pressures to ignore them. Whether Afghanistan will rise out of its status as a failed state depends in some large way upon whether the newly recognized mineral resources are exploited in environmentally benign ways.

The Emerging Practice of Global Environmental Law

AbstractSince the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, ecological pressures on our planet have grown more acute. Yet, modern environmental law has also continued to evolve and spread within international as well as among national legal systems. With the paths of international and national environmental law becoming increasingly intertwined over the years, international environmental legal norms and principles are now penetrating deeper into national legal systems, and environmental treaties are increasingly incorporating or referencing national legal norms and practices. The shifting legal landscape is also changing contemporary environmental law practice, creating greater needs for domestic environmental lawyers to be informed by international law and vice versa. This essay describes how domestic environmental law practice is increasingly informed by international legal norms, while the effective practice of international environmental law more and more requires enhanced awareness, and even understanding, of national environmental regulatory and governance systems. It illustrates these trends with the historical role and work of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel.

Ten Years of the Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving the Way for Substantive Change in National and International Environmental Law

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings. This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective of the article is to verify whether such requirements are mere “toothless” procedural devices or if they have the potential for bringing about positive substantive change as well. They do. Via cases concerning the power plant construction inside a national park in Albania to gold mining in Romania, the article analyzes how even newly democratized nations have expressed their willingness to improve national environmental legislation and law enforcement by taking into account the results of public participation. Such bottoms-up style governance also has great potential for change at the international level. What may be seen as a dichotomy between procedure and substance is thus more correctly seen as an effective interface between the two. This first-of-its kind article concludes by proposing how the Convention has room for both thematic and geographical growth as well as how its legal principles can be beneficially emulated in other legal instruments.

Public Participation: A Bottoms-Up Approach to Law-Making and Enforcement

This article addresses public participation provisions in law making and law enforcement in select American states and federal statutes and beyond. The article describes the advantages and disadvantages of public participation in general. It then argues that U.S. law – with a particular view to California law – could be improved by emulating certain provisions of the UNECE Aarhus Convention, which is a model of public participation in national and international environmental law.