Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and definitions
- Figures, tables and boxes
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Table of treaties and other international instruments
- Introduction
- 1 Climate law
- 2 Legal elements and ongoing development of the international climate change regime
- 3 Measurement and verification of state emissions and legacy of the Kyoto Protocol’s compliance system
- 4 Development of climate law in Australia
- 5 Putting a price on carbon
- 6 The regulatory network of the Clean Development Mechanism
- 7 The emerging scheme for the protection of forests in developing countries (REDD)
- 8 Climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for sustainable development
- 9 Legal and regulatory frameworks for transition to a low-carbon economy
- 10 Biosequestration and emission reduction regulation in the Australian land sector
- 11 Adaptation to climate change through legal frameworks
- Postscript
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
1 - Climate law
Meaning and context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and definitions
- Figures, tables and boxes
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Table of treaties and other international instruments
- Introduction
- 1 Climate law
- 2 Legal elements and ongoing development of the international climate change regime
- 3 Measurement and verification of state emissions and legacy of the Kyoto Protocol’s compliance system
- 4 Development of climate law in Australia
- 5 Putting a price on carbon
- 6 The regulatory network of the Clean Development Mechanism
- 7 The emerging scheme for the protection of forests in developing countries (REDD)
- 8 Climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for sustainable development
- 9 Legal and regulatory frameworks for transition to a low-carbon economy
- 10 Biosequestration and emission reduction regulation in the Australian land sector
- 11 Adaptation to climate change through legal frameworks
- Postscript
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In this chapter we discuss the unprecedented nature of the climate change challenge, legal principles relevant to solving it, and the interdisciplinary demands placed on those working in this area of law, science, and policy.
A ‘global–global’ problem
Our response to climate change has been unlike our response to any other global problem, whether physical or social. There has been an expectation from the start that the world’s wealthiest countries (in particular, the OECD countries) would move in lock step to solve it. Even developing countries are expected to march in unison, albeit at some distance behind the wealthier states. Our response to climate change has assumed that all states will work together and there will be no laggards. Thus international law and regulation have always been considered critical to solving the problem.
Other global problems – for example, older environmental harms such as water pollution, deforestation, species loss or overfishing – are ‘global’ in the narrow sense that they occur everywhere where large concentrations of people live. Human populations have similar environmental impacts throughout the world. Or, to take another type of global problem, abuse of human rights occurs in all locations where there are people, concentrated or not.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Australian Climate Law in Global Context , pp. 12 - 51Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012