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COMMENTARY: Carbon Property Rights in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2009

Spike Boydell ,
John Sheehan  and
Jason Prior
Spike Boydell*
Affiliation:
Built Environment, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Asia-Pacific Centre for Complex Real Property Rights
John Sheehan
Affiliation:
Australian Property Institute, and the UTS Asia-Pacific Centre for Complex Real Property Rights
Jason Prior
Affiliation:
Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, Broadway, Australia
*
Address correspondence to: Professor Spike Boydell, Director, Asia-Pacific Centre for Complex Real Property Rights, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia; (phone) +61 2 9514 8675; (fax) +61 2 9514 8777; (email) spike.boydell@uts.edu.au
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Abstract

This commentary offers a background to the carbon challenge, carbon offsets, and emissions trading from an Australian perspective. It sets the scene for a more detailed discussion about carbon sequestration rights, which are defined explicitly by some Australian states and territories but not by others. We highlight that the term carbon sequestration right is poorly defined and relies, inappropriately we suggest, on the borrowed term profit à prendre. This terminology is at odds with the notion of a carbon property right, which has yet to be conceptualized fully by the marketplace and the existing legal framework, given the need to fully engage the sociological and ecological dimensions of carbon and climate change. We find that current policy intent, together with evolving public will and corporate responsibility, is ahead of the science and the legal framework for managing property rights in carbon (used broadly to represent the six greenhouse gasses). The Australian Property Institute has taken the lead in its 2007 policy paper Conceiving Property Rights in Carbon and more recently in Sheehan and Kanas's investigation of “Property Rights in Soil.” This article takes the discussion to the next stage by offering a framework for property rights in carbon and asking whether such rights should be vested in the state or the nation, rather than merely creating a commodity that can be efficiently allocated and thus speculated upon.

Environmental Practice 11:105–114 (2009)

Type
FEATURES
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 105 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2009

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