Meinhard Doelle

New Governance Arrangements at the Intersection of Climate Change and Forest Policy: Institutional, Political and Regulatory Dimensions

This article investigates emerging governance arrangements at the intersection between forest management and climate policy. The authors deploy the symposium’s three dimensional framework to describe and evaluate developments within two distinct policy sectors (forestry/climate change adaptation and mitigation) at several levels of governance (bi-national, national, and sub-national) to explore the nature and operation of the emerging governance arrangements, and assessing and measuring change within these arrangements over time. Drawing on four contemporary case studies from the US and Canada, New Zealand, British Columbia and Alaska, the authors discern little evidence of a generalized, linear trend from ‘government to governance’. Instead, they conclude, across institutional, political and regulatory dimensions of governance, amore variegated and diverse picture emerges. Their analysis also lends support for the Trubek and Trubek (2007) hypothesis that emerging governance arrangements typically interact with extant ones through modalities of rivalry, complementarity and transformation.

Invasive seaweeds: global and regional law and policy responses.

Abstract We consider law and policy responses to invasive seaweeds at global and regional levels. Key global regimes considered include the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention and the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species. Contributions from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Maritime Organization are also considered in the global context. At a regional level, examples of efforts in North America and Europe are offered to illustrate challenges and opportunities for regional responses to invasive seaweeds. We conclude with law and policy recommendations, most notably the need to approach the issue of invasive seaweeds in a manner consistent with the precautionary principle.

Climate Change and the Use of the Dispute Settlement Regime of the Law of the Sea Convention

This article explores the connection between obligations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the climate change regime and obligations to protect the marine environment under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Within the context of the state of the science on the links between climate change and the marine environment, the article considers whether the emission of greenhouse gases as a result of human activity constitutes a violation of various obligations under the UNCLOS. Having identified a number of possible violations, the article proceeds to consider the application of the binding dispute settlement process under the UNCLOS and the possibility of a successful claim.

The Paris Agreement: Historic Breakthrough or High Stakes Experiment?

This article offers an overview of the two key outcomes of the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Paris COP decision, and the Paris Agreement. They chart a new course for the UN climate regime that started in earnest in Copenhagen in 2009. The Paris Agreement represents a course away from the top down approach and rigid differentiation among parties reflected in the Kyoto Protocol, toward a bottom up and flexible approach focused on collective long term goals and principles. It represents an approach to reaching these long term goals that is focused on self differentiation, support, transparency and review. The article highlights the key elements of the agreement reached in Paris, including its approach to mitigation, adaptation, loss & damage, finance, transparency and compliance.

Climate Change and the WTO: Opportunities to Motivate State Action on Climate Change Through the World Trade Organization

This article explores the role of trade in motivating action on climate change, using the specific example of developments within the World Trade Organization (WTO).The Kyoto Protocol, the Þrst international agreement with legally binding commitments to begin to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is expected to come into force in 2004. With it, most of the developed world will be committed to modest reduction targets over the next decade. The two largest per capita emitters, the USA and Australia, have so far opted not to join this modest effort to address climate change, and developing countries, while party to the Kyoto process, are so far only engaged in voluntary action to reduce emissions.

The Role of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in Energy Governance: A Case Study of Tidal Energy in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy

This article considers the role of strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in improving decision-making by government decision-makers faced with the arrival of a new industry to their jurisdiction. It uses the arrival of the in-stream tidal energy industry in Nova Scotia as a case study. The article first considers the existing federal and provincial regulatory context for decisions about whether, where and under what conditions to approve tidal energy projects in the Bay of Fundy region. It then provides an overview of an SEA carried out on behalf of the province of Nova Scotia in 2007/2008, and assesses the outcomes of the SEA process. The article concludes with a critique of the tidal SEA process and outcomes based on criteria selected from current SEA literature.

Promoting compliance in an evolving climate regime

Introduction Jutta Brunnee, Meinhard Doelle and Lavanya Rajamani Part I. Context: 1. The emerging post-Cancun climate regime Jennifer Morgan 2. Promoting compliance with MEAs Jutta Brunnee 3. Compliance regimes in multilateral environmental agreements Jane Bulmer Part II. The Kyoto Compliance System - Features and Experience: 4. Key features of the Kyoto protocols compliance system Rene Lefeber and Sebastian Oberthuer 5. Experience with the facilitative and enforcement branches of the Kyoto compliance system Meinhard Doelle 6. Experiences with Articles 5, 7 and 8 defining the monitoring, reporting and verification system under the Kyoto protocol Anke Herold Part III. Compliance and the Climate Change Regime - Issues, Options and Challenges: 7. The role of non-state actors in climate compliance Eric Dannenmaier 8. Facilitation of compliance Catherine Redgwell 9. Enforcing compliance in an evolving climate regime Michael Mehling 10. Financial mechanisms under the climate change regime Haroldo Machado-Filho 11. Post-2012 compliance and carbon markets Francesco Sindico 12. Compliance and the use of trade measures Jake Werksman 13. Comparability of efforts among developed country parties and the post-2012 compliance system M. J. Mace 14. From the Kyoto protocol compliance system to MRVs: what is at stake for the European Union? Sandrine Maljean-Dubois and Anne-Sophie Tabau 15. Compliance in transition countries Christina Voigt 16. The KPS and developing countries and compliance in the climate regime Lavanya Rajamani 17. The role of dispute settlement in the climate change regime Ruth Mackenzie 18. Depoliticizing compliance Geir Ulfstein Part IV. A Look Forward: 19. Conclusion Jutta Brunnee, Meinhard Doelle and Lavanya Rajamani.

Carbon Capture and Storage in the CDM: Finding its Place Among Climate MitigationOptions?

The climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, concluded seven years of international negotiations on the role of carbon capture and storage in the Clean Development Mechanism. This article considers the resulting Durban CCS rules in light of the state of CCS technologies, their place among the range of climate mitigation options, and the resulting challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties surrounding the role of CCS. Eight principles that should guide the use of CCS in the CDM are proposed, and the Durban rules are assessed against them.

Early experience with the Kyoto compliance system: Possible lessons for MEA compliance system design

Regardless of the future of the Kyoto compliance system, much of its work will continue to be important both for the climate change regime and for other MEAs. While it is impossible to make accurate predictions about the substance of the climate change regime after 2012, it is nevertheless important to reflect on the experience with the Kyoto compliance system to date for MEA compliance generally. Adjustments to the Kyoto compliance system necessitated by post 2012 changes to the substantive obligations can, of course, only be considered once those changes are known. The central question posed in this article is therefore the following: Assuming the obligations under the climate change regime were to remain unchanged, what adjustments to the Kyoto compliance system would be warranted in light of the experience to date? In addressing this central question, the aim of this article is to help inform the design of future compliance systems under any MEAs that recognize the value of seeking to combine facilitative compliance strategies with enforcement.

The Climate Change Regime and the Arctic Region

This chapter provides an overview of the climate change regime from an arctic perspective. The chapter poses a number of questions about the ability of the regime to take appropriate account of arctic interests in its efforts to mitigate climate change and adapt where impacts are not prevented. The chapter is divided into four components, a brief history of the regime, its approach to mitigation, efforts to date on adaptation, and the future of the regime. The history of the regime tracks its evolution through the IPCC, the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, and its implementation. The section on mitigation describes the emission reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol and the various mechanisms available to meet these targets. The adaptation section considers provisions in the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, and their implementation to date. The final section considers the future of the regime and the promise it holds for addressing arctic concerns over the adequacy of mitigation, adaptive capacity, and the specific vulnerability of this region. In light of the inadequacy of the global response to climate change to date, the chapter discusses how arctic interests have been represented in the climate change regime to date.