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Climate change and its adverse impacts on nature and human society are clearly felt. Who should bear the responsibility? Should anyone be held liable for grave losses and damages related to climate change? In what way and to what extent can these issues be addressed in legal mechanisms both globally and locally? Will an international liability regime an ultimate solution? Are courts ready for and capable of resolving these disputes that find intricacy of law, policy and science? To shed light on these issues, this book is structured with four main themes on the discussions of climate change liability and related mechanisms. They are: 1) state liability and responsibility, 2) climate change litigation, 3) climate change liability and alternatives, and 4) dispute resolution and remedies. Reflections on the concepts of liability/responsibly/accountability have provided for nuanced understandings of their functional dynamics in climate change governance. Our findings also suggest that International and domestic courts have become a vital player in attribution or distribution of climate change liability. In addition to formalistic rights discourse and rigid liability regime, a few alternatives such as carbon market, insurance, mediation or soft law are also finding their ways to ensuring sustainability of climate change governance.
This book sheds new light on the growing issue of using liability as a tool for both preventing and compensating for the damage caused by climate change. Michael Faure and Marjan Peeters have brought together a selection of expert contributors who explore a variety of both national and European perspectives on the topic. Climate change liability is no longer only a theoretical idea since climate changelitigation has become so hotly debated and this book examines to what extent it can be used for mitigation and adaptation issues. Chapters discuss the potential role of liability within various legal systems, like the national systems of the USA and The Netherlands, but also EU and ECHR law. Liability is outlined in a broad perspective since not only compensation for damage suffered by plaintiffs isdiscussed, but also the need for prevention in order to obtain a reduction of greenhouse gases.
This book is the first comprehensive assessment of the legal duties of states with regard to human induced climate change damage
As frustration mounts in some quarters at the perceived inadequacy or speed of international action on climate change, and as the likelihood of significant impacts grows, the focus is increasingly turning to liability for climate change damage. Actual or potential climate change liability implicates a growing range of actors, including governments, industry, businesses, non-governmental organisations, individuals and legal practitioners. Climate Change Liability provides an objective, rigorous and accessible overview of the existing law and the direction it might take in seventeen developed and developing countries and the European Union. In some jurisdictions, the applicable law is less developed and less the subject of current debate. In others, actions for various kinds of climate change liability have already been brought, including high profile cases such as Massachusetts v. EPA in the United States. Each chapter explores the potential for and barriers to climate change liability in private and public law.
There is increasing evidence to suggest that adaptation to the inevitable is as relevant to climate change policymaking as mitigation efforts. Both mitigation and adaptation, as well as the unavoidable damage occurring both now and that is predicted to occur, all involve costs at the expense of diverse climate change victims. The allocation of responsibilities—implicit in terms of the burden-sharing mechanisms that currently exist in public and private governance—demands recourse under liability law, especially as it has become clear that most companies will only start reducing emissions if verifiable costs of the economic consequences of climate change, including the likelihood of liability, outweigh the costs of taking precautionary measures. This vitally important book asks: Can the precautionary principle make uncertainty judiciable in the context of liability for the consequences of climate change, and, if so, to what extent? Drawing on the full range of pertinent existing literature and case law, the author examines the precautionary principle both in terms of its content and application and in the context of liability law. She analyses the indirect means offered by existing legislation being used by environmental groups and affected individuals before the courts to challenge both companies and regulators as responsible agents of climate change damage. In the process of responding to its fundamental question, the analysis explores such further questions as the following: What is the role of the precautionary principle in resolving uncertainty in scientific risk assessment when faced with inconclusive evidence, and how does it affect decision-making, particularly in the regulatory choices concerning climate change? To this end, what is the concrete content of the precautionary principle? How does liability law generally handle scientific uncertainty? What different types of liability exist, and how are they equipped to handle a climate change liability claim? What type of liability is best suited for precautionary measures or a lack thereof? Can the application of the precautionary principle make a difference to the outcomes of climate change liability claims? In order to draw conclusions concerning the legal uncertainties posed by climate change, the author draws examples from national legislations representative of the various legal systems, as well as from existing treaties. General rules and obligations relevant to climate change liability are examined, and a selection of actual legal cases from around the world concerning climate change, be it actual liability claims or litigation indirectly relevant to a claim, is also presented. As an overview of the different legal challenges created by climate change liability, this book is without peer. The practical meaning and impact of these findings for lawyers (whether corporate or activist), for regulators and policymakers, and for decision-makers in governmental bodies and private companies is immeasurable.
This book provides an authoritative insight on the Loss and Damage discourse by highlighting state-of-the-art research and policy linked to this discourse and articulating its multiple concepts, principles and methods. Written by leading researchers and practitioners, it identifies practical and evidence-based policy options to inform the discourse and climate negotiations. With climate-related risks on the rise and impacts being felt around the globe has come the recognition that climate mitigation and adaptation may not be enough to manage the effects from anthropogenic climate change. This recognition led to the creation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage in 2013, a climate policy mechanism dedicated to dealing with climate-related effects in highly vulnerable countries that face severe constraints and limits to adaptation. Endorsed in 2015 by the Paris Agreement and effectively considered a third pillar of international climate policy, debate and research on Loss and Damage continues to gain enormous traction. Yet, concepts, methods and tools as well as directions for policy and implementation have remained contested and vague. Suitable for researchers, policy-advisors, practitioners and the interested public, the book furthermore: • discusses the political, legal, economic and institutional dimensions of the issue• highlights normative questions central to the discourse • provides a focus on climate risks and climate risk management. • presents salient case studies from around the world.
This book discusses the agency and responsibility of individuals in climate change, and argues that these are underemphasized, enabling individuals to maintain their consumptive lifestyles without having to accept moral responsibility for their luxury emissions.
Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
Extreme weather events, such as cyclones and hurricanes, are increasing in their frequency and intensity. This increase has been scientifically linked to global warming, which is induced by anthropogenic climate change. This phenomenon is disproportionately affecting developing States, such as the Caribbean and Pacific Islands, even though they are not contributing to climate change to the same extent as developed States or emerging markets, and having a devastating effect on people and their livelihoods. This book examines two critical aspects of this situation, to which no specific, singular source in public international law is applicable or responsible. This book first examines the manner in which public international law, in particular international environmental law and customary public international law, is applicable to the question of funding for reconstruction and early warning systems by developed States and emerging markets. As the intensity and frequency of these events increases, so does the requirement for funding, with the aim of improving vulnerable States resilience to climate-related devastation. While there are several schemes in place in order to secure funding for either early warning systems or postdisaster reconstruction, such as donations or insurance solutions, there is no specific instrument in public international law that deals with the question of whether developed States and emerging markets have an obligation to financially assist disaster-prone developing States with regard to the establishment of early warning systems and reconstruction in the wake of natural disasters. This book also analyses the right to receive humanitarian assistance and the State's obligation to provide early warning. In the aftermath of a calamitous event, the victims are largely dependent on the Sate and its capacity to organise and accept, if necessary, international humanitarian assistance. If the affected State refuses to do so, the consequences for the victims can be disastrous. With regard to humanitarian assistance, the book focuses on the application of human rights law on the international as well as regional levels, such as the African human rights system for example. In addition, the book outlines the doctrine of the responsibility to protect in this context and its practical limits in particular. As concerns the question of whether there is an obligation to provide early warning, this is assessed through an analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, also taking into account the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights system. Throughout its discussion of legal responsibility under international law resulting from climate change-induced natural disasters, this book takes into account the new developments around the International Law Commission's project on the "Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters", which is now considered for treaty adoption.