What would ecological climate change law look like? Developing a method for analysing the international climate change regime from an ecological perspective

Peer reviewedPostprin

Renewable Energy and the Law of the Sea

Contemporary technologies for offshore electricity generation and transmission enable sea uses of types and at scales that could not have been envisaged when the text of UNCLOS was agreed. The chapter considers whether UNCLOS is able to accommodate the offshore renewables revolution. It focuses on offshore wind energy, which is likely to see massive growth during the next three decades as the world decarbonizes. The review finds that UNCLOS does not always make adequate legal provision for them. Support will be needed from national laws, interstate agreements, and resolutions and guidelines of international organizations such as the International Maritime Organization to fill gaps in the law, clarify uncertainties and to meet challenges posed by offshore wind’s growth. Further regulation by states of offshore wind will also be needed to address the environmental effects of relevant development in line with duties for marine environmental protection, and to answer difficult legal questions raised by the pursuit of development that may itself cause significant environmental harm to address the environmental threats posed by climate change

The Paris Climate Change Agreement : a new stimulus for international effort to promote renewable energy development?

Peer reviewedPostprin

Regulating the promotion of renewable electricity consumption and production: a European Union case study

Increasing renewable electricity production and consumption is viewed worldwide as a desirable policy goal, for reasons including climate change mitigation and energy security enhancement. However, realising this goal is far from simple. This is due to two related factors – socio-economic lock-in to fossil fuel consumption, and the difficulties associated with integrating renewable generation within electricity systems. Many states therefore use law to support pro-renewables policies, whether by promoting renewable electricity specifically or through removing barriers to the growth of the renewables sector. This chapter uses examples from European Union policy and law on renewable energy to illustrate some of the main respects in which law is used to facilitate renewable electricity production and consumption

Law and governance in the Anthropocene

This special issue on ‘Law and Governance in the Anthropocene’ brings together scholars from the disciplines of law and international relations to examine the ramifications of the Anthropocene for global governance and international law. The predominant focus of the literature to date has been understandably on defining the Anthropocene and on assessing what it means for the validity of longstanding viewpoints. However, more attention must be given to the specific changes needed in international relations and law in practice and as disciplines to adjust to the reality of human-driven planetary change. Thus, it aims to build upon existing scholarship by developing specific governance responses to the challenges of the Anthropocene. This introductory article provides a brief outline of the larger workshop project which led to this special issue and offers a synopsis of the included articles. It concludes with some comments on the possible future directions for both scholarship and for legal and political practice

Disease-induced resource constraints can trigger explosive epidemics

Advances in mathematical epidemiology have led to a better understanding of the risks posed by epidemic spreading and informed strategies to contain disease spread. However, a challenge that has been overlooked is that, as a disease becomes more prevalent, it can limit the availability of the capital needed to effectively treat those who have fallen ill. Here we use a simple mathematical model to gain insight into the dynamics of an epidemic when the recovery of sick individuals depends on the availability of healing resources that are generated by the healthy population. We find that epidemics spiral out of control into "explosive" spread if the cost of recovery is above a critical cost. This can occur even when the disease would die out without the resource constraint. The onset of explosive epidemics is very sudden, exhibiting a discontinuous transition under very general assumptions. We find analytical expressions for the critical cost and the size of the explosive jump in infection levels in terms of the parameters that characterize the spreading process. Our model and results apply beyond epidemics to contagion dynamics that self-induce constraints on recovery, thereby amplifying the spreading process.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Tsunami impacts on shallow groundwater and associated water supply on the East Coast of Sri Lanka: a post-tsunami well recovery support initiative and an assessment of groundwater salinity in three areas of Batticaloa and Ampara Districts

Groundwater, Aquifers, Salinity, Natural disasters, Water supply, Drinking water, Wells, Rehabilitation, Mosquitoes, Disease vectors, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

COVAC1 phase 2a expanded safety and immunogenicity study of a self-amplifying RNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

BACKGROUND: Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) encapsulated self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) is well tolerated and immunogenic in SARS-CoV-2 seronegative and seropositive individuals aged 18-75. METHODS: A phase 2a expanded safety and immunogenicity study of a saRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate LNP-nCoVsaRNA, was conducted at participating centres in the UK between 10th August 2020 and 30th July 2021. Participants received 1 μg then 10 μg of LNP-nCoVsaRNA, ∼14 weeks apart. Solicited adverse events (AEs) were collected for one week post-each vaccine, and unsolicited AEs throughout. Binding and neutralisating anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody raised in participant sera was measured by means of an anti-Spike (S) IgG ELISA, and SARS-CoV-2 pseudoneutralisation assay. (The trial is registered: ISRCTN17072692, EudraCT 2020-001646-20). FINDINGS: 216 healthy individuals (median age 51 years) received 1.0 μg followed by 10.0 μg of the vaccine. 28/216 participants were either known to have previous SARS-CoV2 infection and/or were positive for anti-Spike (S) IgG at baseline. Reactogenicity was as expected based on the reactions following licensed COVID-19 vaccines, and there were no serious AEs related to vaccination. 80% of baseline SARS-CoV-2 naïve individuals (147/183) seroconverted two weeks post second immunization, irrespective of age (18-75); 56% (102/183) had detectable neutralising antibodies. Almost all (28/31) SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals had increased S IgG binding antibodies following their first 1.0 μg dose with a ≥0.5log10 increase in 71% (22/31). INTERPRETATION: Encapsulated saRNA was well tolerated and immunogenic in adults aged 18-75 years. Seroconversion rates in antigen naïve were higher than those reported in our dose-ranging study. Further work is required to determine if this difference is related to a longer dosing interval (14 vs. 4 weeks) or dosing with 1.0 μg followed by 10.0 μg. Boosting of S IgG antibodies was observed with a single 1.0 μg injection in those with pre-existing immune responses. FUNDING: Grants and gifts from the Medical Research Council UKRI (MC_PC_19076), the National Institute for Health Research/Vaccine Task Force, Partners of Citadel and Citadel Securities, Sir Joseph Hotung Charitable Settlement, Jon Moulton Charity Trust, Pierre Andurand, and Restore the Earth

Saving Human Lives: What Complexity Science and Information Systems can Contribute

We discuss models and data of crowd disasters, crime, terrorism, war and disease spreading to show that conventional recipes, such as deterrence strategies, are often not effective and sufficient to contain them. Many common approaches do not provide a good picture of the actual system behavior, because they neglect feedback loops, instabilities and cascade effects. The complex and often counter-intuitive behavior of social systems and their macro-level collective dynamics can be better understood by means of complexity science. We highlight that a suitable system design and management can help to stop undesirable cascade effects and to enable favorable kinds of self-organization in the system. In such a way, complexity science can help to save human lives.Comment: 67 pages, 25 figures; accepted for publication in Journal of Statistical Physics [for related work see http://www.futurict.eu/