The Law of the Sea. By R. R. Churchill and A. V. Lowe. Dover, N.H.: Manchester University Press, 1983. Pp. xxxiii, 321. Index. $25.

The European Union has played a leading role in pushing for the establishment, ratification, and meaningful implementation of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, although it still has significant efforts to make to achieve its target of an 8 percent cut of greenhouse gas by 2008–2012 relative to the 1990 level. This article explores the political factors behind continued EU leadership in climate change. It argues that a few individual states (including Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and the UK) played an essential role in establishing the EU's agenda in this domain. However, the decentralized governance structure of the EU has also encouraged a process of mutual reinforcement, whereby individual states, the European Commission, and the European Parliament are competing for leadership.

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Multi-Level Reinforcement: Explaining European Union Leadership in Climate Change Mitigation

Having risen from relative obscurity as few as ten years ago, climate change now looms large among environmental policy issues. Its scope is global; the potential environmental and economic impacts are ubiquitous; the potential restrictions on human choices touch the most basic goals of people in all nations; and the sheer scope of the potential response ? a significant shift away from using fossil fuels as the primary energy source in the modern economy ? is daunting. In this paper, we explore the economics of climate change policy. We examine the risks that climate change poses for society, the benefits of protection against the effects of climate change, and the costs of alternative protection policies. We organize our discussion around three broad themes: why costs and benefits matter in assessing climate change policies, as does the uncertainty surrounding them; why well-designed, cost-effective climate policies are essential in addressing the threat of climate change; and why a coherent architecture of international agreements is key to successful policy implementation. We conclude the paper with a summary of key policy lessons and gaps in knowledge.

Climate Change Policy

The goal of this paper is to illuminate the debate concerning the economics of ecosystem services. The sustainability debate focuses on whether or not ecosystem services are essential for human welfare and the existence of ecological thresholds. If ecosystem services are essential, then marginal analysis and monetary valuation are inappropriate tools in the vicinity of thresholds. The justice debate focuses on who is entitled to ecosystem services and the ecosystem structure that generates them. Answers to these questions have profound implications for the choice of suitable economic institutions. The efficiency debate concerns both the goals of economic activity and the mechanisms best suited to achieve those goals. Conventional economists pursue Pareto efficiency and the maximization of monetary value, achieved by integrating ecosystem services into the market framework. Ecological economists and many others pursue the less rigorously defined goal of achieving the highest possible quality of life compatible with the conservation of resilient, healthy ecosystems, achieved by adapting economic institutions to the physical characteristics of ecosystem services. The concept of ecosystem services is a valuable tool for economic analysis, and should not be discarded because of disagreements with particular economists’ assumptions regarding sustainability, justice and efficiency.

https://www.uvm.edu/~jfarley/publications/economics%20debate.pdf

Ecosystem services: The economics debate

The new edition of this exciting textbook introduces students to the ways in which the theories and tools of international relations and other social science disciplines can be used to analyse and address global environmental problems. Kate O'Neill develops an innovative historical and analytical framework for understanding global environmental issues, integrating insights from different disciplines, and she identifies the main actors and their roles, thereby encouraging readers to engage with the issues and equip themselves with the knowledge they need to apply their own critical insights. Revised and updated, the new edition features new figures, examples, textboxes, and a new chapter on the emergence and politics of market mechanisms as a new mode of global environmental governance. The latest developments in the field, including the December 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, along with new perspectives and recent thinking, are incorporated throughout. This will be invaluable for students of environmental issues both from political science and environmental studies perspectives.

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The environment and international relations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................... 15 REFRIGERANTS .......................................................................................................................................... 15 DOMESTIC APPLIANCES .............................................................................................................................. 15 COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION ................................................................................................................... 16 INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS ................................................................................................................................ 16 TRANSPORT REFRIGERATION ...................................................................................................................... 17 AIR-TO-AIR AIR CONDITIONERS AND HEAT PUMPS ...................................................................................... 17 WATER HEATING HEAT PUMPS ................................................................................................................... 18 VEHICLE AIR CONDITIONING ...................................................................................................................... 19 SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION .................................................................................................................. 20 EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES OF ALL CHAPTERS ................................................................................ 21 REFRIGERANTS .......................................................................................................................................... 21 DOMESTIC APPLIANCES .............................................................................................................................. 21 COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION ................................................................................................................... 22 INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS ................................................................................................................................ 23 TRANSPORT REFRIGERATION ...................................................................................................................... 23 AIR-TO-AIR AIR CONDITIONERS AND HEAT PUMPS ...................................................................................... 24 WATER HEATING HEAT PUMPS ................................................................................................................... 25 CHILLERS ................................................................................................................................................... 26 VEHICLE AIR CONDITIONING ...................................................................................................................... 26 SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION .................................................................................................................. 28

The Montreal Protocol

The authors begin with the premise that it would be instructive to examine the record of different international environmental agreements in order to highlight general lessons of possible relevance to a greenhouse gas accord. They review three different international agreements (or sets of agreements) on the environment: the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and its 1990 amendment; a set of multilateral agreements to reduce acid rain in Europe; and the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty. Their analysis sheds light on five factors that are important in achieving effective international agreement on environmental issues: the role of scientific and other knowledge in building consensus; the degree of flexibility provided in meeting obligations to the agreement; the role of incentives (both positive and negative) for widespread participation; the process of negotiation itself; and the role of public perception in influencing political action.

Peter M. Morrisette

Papers

The Montreal Protocol

Prospects for a global greenhouse gas accord 1Lessons from other agreements

Global Warming. A Policy Review