Climate change

The planetary boundary on climate change probably is the boundary that has received most legal recognition of all planetary boundaries. It is hard to imagine international climate change law not taking an Earth System perspective as the climate system is a global system that is affected by the combined impact of human greenhouse gas emissions across the globe. Since 1992, with the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international community has been trying to establish a global legal mechanism with the aim to keep climate change within the limits of the planet, although the adoption of a specific quantified boundary occurred only in 2009. This experience of almost thirty years makes it possible to assess whether this planetary boundary has been explicitly recognized in international and domestic law, and, if so, how exactly. We can also assess what the impact of these attempts has been.This chapter carries out this assessment through following steps. After the introduction, section 2 has a closer look at the climate change boundary: what does it entail, and how are we doing in observing this boundary? This section largely relies on scientific literature on planetary boundaries and on climate science literature, such as reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Section 3 then focusses on international law: how has the planetary boundary been recognized in international climate change law, from the UNFCCC up to the Paris Agreement, and how has the international community attempted to remain within this boundary? This question will be answered through reviewing relevant legal texts. The same question, but then with a focus on the domestic level, is addressed in section 4. As the aim of this section primarily is to show how a ‘planetary boundary’-approach can be adopted at the domestic level, I did not do wide survey among a range of countries. The relatively small size of this chapter also limited the number of laws and cases to be assessed. Therefore, I only reviewed some very advanced domestic climate change laws, namely that of the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the most prolific climate change litigation case to date, that of Urgenda versus the Netherlands.<br/

Towards a regulatory design for reducing emissions from agriculture:Lessons from Australia's carbon farming initiative

The land sector is essential to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals. Agriculture and land use contribute between 20 and 25 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement’s aim to keep the average global temperature rise between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius implies that drastic emission cuts from agriculture are needed. The sequestration potential of agriculture and land use offers an important mechanism to achieve a transition to net-zero carbon emissions worldwide. So far, however, states have been reluctant to address emissions from, and sequestration by, the agricultural sector. Some states that have or are setting up a domestic emission-trading scheme allow for the generation of offsets in agriculture, but only to a limited extent. Australia is the only country that has a rather broad set of methodologies in place to award credits to farmers for all kinds of carbon-farming projects. This article reviews the experience with the Australian model so far, with the objective of articulating transferable lessons for regulatory design aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. It finds that it is possible to regulate for the reduction of emissions from agriculture and for increased sequestration in agricultural soils and in vegetation on agricultural lands, provided that certain conditions are met. Regulation must focus on individual projects at farms, based on a long-term policy that has a wider focus than just emission reduction. Such projects must comply with climate-smart methodologies that ensure the delivery of real, additional, measurable, and verifiable emission reductions and also foster long-term innovation and create economic, social, and environmental co-benefits. Moreover, a robust and reliable mrv system must be put in place

Report on the legal implementation of the EU ETS at Member State level:Deliverable D2.4 ENTRACTE – Economic iNsTRuments to Achieve Climate Targets in Europe (EU/FP7)

The integrity of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) relies upon consistent and uniform implementation and enforcement across all 31 participating states. The compliance cycle of the ETS - consisting of compliance assistance, inspection and enforcement - is a continuous dynamic, complex process. Although harmonisation of monitoring, verification and reporting (MRV) has improved, the functioning of the ETS compliance practice in the different Member States varies greatly. This is due to differences in underlying principles of enforcement strategies, institutional settings and in funding. While compliance rates are currently high, efforts should be afforded to ensuring more harmonized practice with a view to likely future price increases of allowances