William C. G. Burns

From the Harpoon to the Heat: Climate Change and the International Whaling Commission in the 21st Century

The article examines the International Whaling Commissions efforts to address one of the most pressing issues facing cetaceans in the 21st Century, climate change. The article outlines the history of the IWC in addressing climate change issues and suggests ways for the IWC to improve its ability to protect cetaceans in the future.

Climate Geoengineering and the Role of Public Deliberation: A Comment on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Recommendations on Public Participation

This article seeks to critique the discussion of the role of public deliberation in climate geoengineering governance, with a focus on the approach taken by the US National Academy of Sciences in its major reports on geoengineering, released in February of 2015. The article suggests that the NASs dedication to public deliberation was insufficient. It also proffers some potential options to strengthen the role of public deliberation in climate geoengineering governance.

Potential Causes of Action for Climate Change Impacts Under the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement

The article focuses on the potential impacts of climate change on straddling fish stocks and highly migratory species and the potential for pursuing causes of action under the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. The article also assesses potential barriers to such causes of action.

Adjudicating Climate Change: Overview: The Exigencies That Drive Potential Causes of Action for Climate Change

Over the course of the last few years, climate change litigation has been transformed from a creative lawyering strategy to a major force in transnational regulatory governance of greenhouse gas emissions. This book traces that journey and looks ahead to the future by considering a range of lawsuits and petitions filed in state, national, and international tribunals, as well as some potential causes of action. These actions cover an immense legal terrain but have in common their concern with more effective regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. This introductory chapter frames the contributions in this book. It first provides an overview of climate change science, including both the current and the projected global impacts of climate change; second, it assesses current institutional responses to climate change and why they have been and likely will continue to be wholly inadequate to confront the looming threat of climate change in this century and beyond; third, it examines current efforts to open a new front to address climate change and climate change litigation; and finally, it provides a synopsis of the chapters that follow.

The Berlin Initiative on Strengthening the Conservation Agenda of the International Whaling Commission: Toward a New Era for Cetaceans?

The fifty-fifth meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was held in Berlin on 16–19 June 2003. The key development at the meeting was the passage of a resolution, denominated ‘the Berlin Initiative’, which established a Conservation Committee to guide the IWC’s future conservation agenda. 1 The extremely narrow margin of passage, 25:20:1, 2 reflected the high level of controversy that the proposal engendered among the parties and non-government organizations that play an active role at IWC meetings. For example, a statement released by 17 parties to the IWC, fully one-third of its membership, expressed concern that the initiative ‘will essentially destroy the already polarized and dysfunctional IWC’, and characterized it as an ‘attempt to change the fundamental objectives . . . and subvert the purpose’ of the Commission. 3 By contrast, supporters of the initiative hailed it as ‘a milestone in the evolution of the IWC’, 4 and ‘a historic day for cetacean conservation’ . 5

Introduction to the Special Issue: Climate Engineering Law

At the time of the publication of this volume, all eyes are turned towards Paris and the unfccc’s cop 21 in anticipation of a new agreement to address climate change. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that this agreement will not constitute a magic bullet. Global average temperatures are projected to increase by 2.6°C by 2100 and reach 3.5°C above pre-industrial levels after 2100, even if the most optimistic outcomes from the conference are realized. The seriousness of temperature increases of this magnitude lies behind the impetus for increasing discussion of a suite of technological options designed to exert dramatic effects on the globe’s environment. These options are known collectively as climate engineering. Largely out of desperation and despair, climate engineering has moved from the realm of taboo to one more policy prescription. Yet, as all of the articles in this issue emphasize, it is a policy prescription not to be embraced lightly given the profound implications that it could pose for human institutions and natural ecosystems. Climate engineering technologies are generally divided into two categories: solar radiation management (srm) approaches, which focus on ‘reducing the amount of solar radiation absorbed by Earth by an amount sufficient to offset the increased trapping of infrared radiation by rising levels of greenhouse gases’, and carbon dioxide removal (cdr) approaches, which ‘seek to reduce co2 levels in the atmosphere, facilitating the escape of more outgoing longwave solar radiation, thus exerting a cooling effect’.1 Much of the early focus of climate engineering research was on technological feasibility and modelling of potential impacts. However, in more recent years, there has been increasing attention to governance issues and the role of