Showing papers on "Environmental law published in 1993"

Institutions for the earth: sources of effective international environmental protection.

Abstract: Global environmental problems have gained prominence since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. Analyses underrepresent the institutional dimensions that shape environmental policy processes. Increased government concern enhanced contracts and increased national capacity have been influenced by international environmental institutions. This volume focuses on specific international environmental issues: protection of the ozone layer European acid rain protection of the Baltic and North Seas oil pollution of the oceans international fisheries management pesticide use in developing countries national population institutions and effective international environmental institutions. The case studies illustrate three distinct functions of international environmental institutions: 1) to enhance the ability to make and keep agreements 2) to promote concern among governments and 3) to build national political and administrative capacity. The obstacles to effective government response to commons and national environmental problems have been low levels of concern about environmental threats lack of the capacity to manage environmental threats and the inability to overcome problems of collective action. Institutions can catalyze government concern and influence environmental policy. International environmental institutions can facilitate contracts by ensuring regular interaction between policy makers on the same set of issues providing monitoring and verification services and monitoring violations. Capacity building can be increased through provision of technical assistance and training programs and of networking between international groups and countries with shared resources. The degree of success of international environmental institutions has varied across issues. Government concern about fisheries issues has not increased and the only key change has been the 200 mile national zone regulations in 1977. Contracts have improved for issues of the ozone layer acid rain and Baltic-North Sea pollution. Building state capacity has improved only for developing countries and not developed ones. Small staffed environment-centered coalitions can be successful.

International Law and the Environment

Abstract: 1. International Law and the Environment 2. International Governance and the Formulation of Environmental Law and Policy 3. The Structure of International Environmental Law I: Rights and Obligations of States 4. The Structure of International Environmental Law II: Regulation, Compliance, Enforcement and Dispute Settlement 5. The Structure of International Environmental Law III: Environmental Rights and Crimes 6. Environmental Protection and Sustainable Use of International Watercourses 7. The Law of the Sea and the Protection of the Marine Environment 8. The International Control of Hazardous Waste 9. Nuclear Energy and the Environment 10. Protecting the Atmosphere and Outer Space 11. Conservation of Nature, Ecosystems, and Biodiversity: Principles and Problems 12. Conservation of Migratory and Land-based Species and Biodiversity 13. Conservation of Marine Living Resources and Biodiversity 14. International Trade and Environmental Protection

World without End: Economics, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Abstract: If world poverty is to be reduced, businesses and governments must continue to pursue economic growth. But growth cannot continue without attention to the environment. This book explores how growth can become environmentally sustainable. It shows that a balance between economic growth and care of the environment is needed in all nations -- especially poor ones -- to prevent environmental degradation, which results in lost economic output and endangers people's health. For example, erosion of soil depletes resources for fuel and fodder and causes food output to decline. The authors address a wide variety of subjects ranging from how to measure sustainable development, to the relation between population and environment, to market paradigms and pollution, to terms of trade and the environment. They use a great deal of material, such as background papers and research conducted for the World Bank, that has not been readily available to the public. And they present a more complete synthesis of the literature relevant for policymaking than has been given in any other book.

Environmental Economics: An Elementary Introduction

Abstract: 1.The big economy 2.Environment and ethics 3.Economic growth, population growth and the environment 4.Sustainable development 5.How markets work and why they fail 6.How governments fail the environment 7.Cost-benefit thinking 8.Valuing concern for nature 9.Coping with uncertainty 10.Using the market to protect the environment 11.Charging for the use of the environment 12.Green taxes 13.Trading environmental permits 14.Setting environmental standards 15.Renewable resources 16.Non-renewable resources 17.Business and the environment 18.Managing waste 19.Climate change 20.Economics and the ozone layer 21.Conserving biological diversity 22.International enivornmental policy: acid rain 23.Environment in the developing world

A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement

Abstract: In A Fierce Green Fire, renowned environmental journalist Philip Shabecoff presents the definitive history of American environmentalism from the earliest days of the republic to the present. He offers a sweeping overview of the contemporary environmental movement and the political, economic, social and ethical forces that have shaped it. More importantly, he considers what today's environmental movement needs to do if it is to fight off the powerful forces that oppose it and succeed in its mission of protecting the American people, their habitat, and their future. Shabecoff traces the ecological transformation of North America as a result of the mass migration of Europeans to the New World, showing how the environmental impulse slowly formed among a growing number of Americans until, by the last third of the 20th Century, environmentalism emerged as a major social and cultural movement. The efforts of key environmental figures -- among them Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, David Brower, Barry Commoner, and Rachel Carson -- are examined. So, too, are the activities of non-governmental environmental groups as well as government agencies such as the EPA and Interior Department, along with grassroots efforts of Americans in communities across the country. The author also describes the economic and ideological forces aligned against environmentalism and their increasing successes in recent decades. Originally published in 1993, this new edition brings the story up to date with an analysis of how the administration of George W. Bush is seeking to dismantle a half-century of progress in protecting the land and its people, and a consideration of the growing international effort to protect Earth's life-support systems and the obstacles that the United States government is placing before that effort. In a forward-looking final chapter, Shabecoff casts a cold eye on just what the environmental movement must do to address the challenges it faces. Now, at this time when environmental law, institutions, and values are under increased attack -- and opponents of environmentalism are enjoying overwhelming political and economic power -- A Fierce Green Fire is a vital reminder of how far we have come in protecting our environment and how much we have to lose.

Troubled Lands: The Legacy Of Soviet Environmental Destruction

Abstract: The air the water the land solid and hazardous wastes government institutions and environmental policy the environmental movement and "green" politics constraints on protecting the environment.

A Healthy and Ecologically Balanced Environment: An Argument for a Third Generation Right

Abstract: When the natural environment is damaged and contaminated to the extent that it threatens life, health, food, shelter, and minimum work standards, it also becomes a threat to established human rights. When people must struggle to obtain the basic necessities of life, political freedoms and human rights may appear meaningless to them. The destruction of life-sustaining ecosystems, the pollution of the world's water, land, and air, the inability to control the world's wastes, and other related environmental problems prevent people from securing the minimum requisites for health and survival, thereby impeding and even prohibiting the effective exercise and enjoyment of human rights for much of the world's population.2 The correlation between human rights and the environment has been recognized by the international community in such forums as the recent United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (UNCED), in proposed United Nations Resolutions and other multilateral agreements, and by writers in the field of international

Environmental economics : policies for environmental management and sustainable development

Abstract: Part 1 Environmental economics and sustainability - the setting: background to environmental economics and sustainable development. Part 2 Externalities and policies to control environmental spillovers: on the theory of externalities - relevant and irrelevant externalities relevance of non-marginal externalities - allowing for extra-marginal external economies pollution control policies - proposals by economists. Part 3 Project evaluation, cost benefit analysis and the environment: the law, risk-taking and environmental spillovers externalities and coasian considerations in project evaluation cost-benefit analysis, the environment and international constraints project appraisal and sustainability. Part 4 Sustainable development and economic activity: the nature of sustainability and of sustainable development sustainable development - differing perspectives of ecologists and economists economics, ecology and sustainable agriculture systems exploitation of techniques that decline in effectiveness with use. Part 5 Environmental policies and global conservation: ecological economics and major policy issues the world conservation strategy - an economic critique resource conservation and sustainability in developing countries and global concerns economic instruments for the control of global environmental problems - recent policy proposals for caring for the Earth.

Endogenous Preferences, Environmental Law

Abstract: The rise of behavioral economics has important implications for the study of government regulation. Above all, the endogeneity of preferences offers a large area for positive work. Some environmental outcomes can be explained by status quo bias and the endowment effect. These phenomena help account for the asymmetry between old and new risks and the public antipathy toward strategies that create incentives to decrease use of automobiles. Both private and public behavior in the environmental context are an outgrowth of the fact that environmental preferences are endogenous to available opportunities, to shifting social norms, and to past acts of consumption.

International Wildlife Law: An Analysis of International Treaties concerned with the Conservation of Wildlife

Abstract: This is the first major description of the international law protecting wildlife, covering the International Conventions on, among other matters: whaling; wetlands; protection of cultural and natural heritage; international trade in endangered species; Antarctic marine living resources.

Ethics and Values in Environmental Policy: The Said and the UNCED

Abstract: While citizens often use non-instrumental arguments to support environmental protection, most governmental policies are justified by instrumental arguments. This paper explores some of the reasons. We interviewed senior policy advisors to four European governments active in global climate change negotiations and the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) process. In response to our questions, a majority of these advisors articulated deeply held personal environmental values. They told us that they normally keep these values separate from their professional environmental policy activities. We interpret these findings within the context of the literature on environmental ethics and values. We suggest that environmental policy could be improved if widely held environmental values were articulated, validated, and admitted into the process of policy analysis and deliberation.

Government policy and environmental protection in the developing world: The example of Nigeria

Abstract: Environmental protection is a topical and controversial issue of contemporary Third World development. As a result of the growing crisis of environment and development as well as issues of global environmental balance, divergent views and proposals have been put forward by external governments, international agencies, and environmental groups in resolving the environmental degradation problems of the developing world. However, very little appraisal has been made of the efforts by indigenous Third World governments in facing up to their environmental conservation issues. This article examines the role of past and recent government environmental control policies and programs in Nigeria. The article analyzes three aspects of environmental protection: (1) the theoretical economic bases of environmental protection and the Nigerian approach to environmental protection, including traditional values and modern institutional control measures, the latter embracing nature conservation efforts; (2) environmental considerations in national development plans; and (3) the evolution of a federal environmental protection agency and a national policy on environment. Finally, the article discusses the future challenges and directions for environmental policy.

Ecology Age: Implications for the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

Abstract: The Earth Summit, held in June 1992, focused international attention on the state of the environment. Critical environmental threats that affect the hospitality and tourism industry include solid waste, water quality and availability, energy, and air pollution. An overview of each of these and initiatives to address them are discussed. The purposes of this article are to stimulate dialogue among hospitality profession als, to emphasize the need for research and training in the industry, and to encourage education programs regarding environmental threats.

Legitimating Impotence: Pyrrhic Victories of the Modern Environmental Movement

Abstract: The strengths and limitations of the modern environmental movement are assessed, using a contextual analysis, with a framework drawn from pragmatic analysis. Empirical summaries from recent policy-making supported by the movement: in community-based recycling, local toxic waste movements, and water pollution control document the fact that the movement has indeed developed some “sustainable resistance” in policy-making in the U.S. and at the Rio Conference. But it has also ignored those consequences of “environmental protection” which degrade the living conditions for many people of color and other low-income groups. The movement's failure to form enduring coalitions for linking environmental protection to social justice limits the movement's power, by permitting disempowered groups to be mobilized in opposition to environmental protection. We outline an alternative strategy, built around “sustainable legitimacy”, which will require changes in the composition and program of environmental movement organizations.

Manual of European Environmental Law

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Fundamental concepts 3. Institutions and agencies 4. The role of the public 5. Techniques of environmental law 6. Biological diversity and the protection of nature 7. Protection of the soil 8. Fresh waters 9. Protection of the marine environment 10. The atmosphere 11. Regulating sources of environmental harm 12. Environmental planning and integrated protection 13. Economic development and environmental protection 14. Conclusion.

Enforcing Environmental Security: The Challenges of Compliance with International Obligations

Abstract: Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening, of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being.(2) The emerging importance of environmental concerns to international security(3) was emphasized in a January 1992 statement by the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council, declaring that "non-military sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields have become threats to peace and security."(4) Six months later, the majority of the world's nations gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the U.N. Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), which had, as one of its major objectives, to assess the capacity of the U.N. system to assist in the prevention and settlement of disputes in the environmental sphere and to recommend measures in this field, while respecting existing bilateral and international agreements that provide for the settlement of such disputes.(5) Implicit in the international legal instruments adopted at UNCED is the recognition that the members of the international community must act together to address global environmental challenges and to prevent the occurrence and escalation of international environmental conflicts.(6) In this broader security context, states' compliance with their international environmental obligations has become a more critical issue in international affairs than ever before. This is evident from the attention the subject received during UNCED as well as the negotiation of recent landmark environmental treaties, including the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987 Montreal Protocol) and the 1992 Conventions on Climate Change and Biological Diversity. Three factors underlie this increased concern with compliance. First, the growing demands and needs of states for access to and use of natural resources coupled with a finite, and perhaps even shrinking, resource base lay the groundwork for increasing interstate tension and conflict. Second, as international environmental obligations increasingly affect national economic interests, states that do not comply with their environmental obligations are perceived to gain unfair competitive economic advantage over other states. Finally, the nature and extent of international environmental obligations have been transformed in recent years as states assume greater environmental treaty commitments. Despite the recent emergence of the concept of environmental security, the challenges it poses are not new to the international legal order. Indeed, the legal issues facing the international community today in relation to the environment are remarkably similar to those addressed one hundred years ago.(7) Over the past century, the international legal system has developed institutions, mechanisms and techniques for preventing and resolving international environmental disputes that have emerged as certain natural resources diminish. The controversial issues include transboundary air pollution, the diversion of international rivers, conservation of fisheries resources, national import restrictions adopted to enforce environmental objectives and responsibility for rehabilitation of mined lands.(8) The existing institutions that deal with environmental security are the United Nations, regional and other organizations established by UNCED and earlier environmental agreements. Furthermore, in the last two decades since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which was the precursor of today's environmental movement, the international community has created a large body of international environmental law to establish standards and procedures on handling disputes. The current dispute between Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia over the diversion of the Danube illustrates the range of enforcement and dispute settlement options available, as Hungary seeks to prevent further dam construction by taking the case to the International Court of justice (ICJ), as well as to arbitration and the emergency procedures of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). …

Greener Buildings Environmental impact of property

Abstract: Foreword T.Watts, President, RICS 1991-1992 - Introduction S.Johnson - Environmental Issues S.Johnson - Site Hazards C.Ferguson - Architecture and Landscape B.Carter - Energy Efficiency S.Johnson & A.Wilkes - Building Materials S.Johnson - Engineering Services A.Wilkes - Building Biology and Health J.Singh - Environmental Law E.Sutherland - Environmental Assessment S.Johnson - Conclusions S.Johnson - Index

Reporting on The State of Canada's Environment

Abstract: The 750 page report,The State of Canada's Environment, is the collaborative effort of more than 100 experts from universities, private industry, environmental groups, and government. In 27 chapters the report addresses four fundamental questions about Canada's environment: what are the key environmental conditions and trends in Canada; what are the links between human activities and environmental changes; what are the environmental, economic, and health implications of these changes; and what are Canadians doing to address the concerns identified? Topics examined include: environmental components (air, fresh and marine water, land, and wildlife), human activities that affect the environment (e.g. forestry, agriculture, fisheries, urbanization), as well as six regional case studies and major environmental issues such as toxic chemicals, ozone depletion and acid rain. The report also indicates areas where Canadians have made progress toward sustainable development and identifies areas where work remains to be done. Actions that are being taken to strengthen state of the environment reporting in Canada, including the development of indicators, are also briefly discussed.

Toward an Environmental Strategy for Asia: A Summary of a World Bank Discussion Paper

Abstract: This booklet summarizes the findings and recommendations of a more detailed study that is being published by the World Bank as a separate Discussion Paper. The study was undertaken to address the need arising from both within and outside the World Bank for: (a) an assessment of the trends and impacts of environmental problems in Asia; (b) a synthesis of the World Bank's experience in assisting Asian countries with environmental management; and (c) a clear statement on World Bank principles and priorities for environmental-related assistance in the near future. After briefly summarizing the nature and magnitude of environmental problems in Asia, the report presents the key components of a strategy to improve environmental management. The report then discusses environmental strategies for five different sectors - urban environmental management, industry, energy, natural resources, and water resources - in greater detail. Finally, the last section outlines the World Bank's potential role in assisting Asian countries to address environmental issues. The environmental emphasis of the Bank's lending program and analytical work has grown over the last several years and is expected to grow futher. However there are areas in which the Bank can potentially do more, as outlined in this report.

Mastering Nepa: A Step-By-Step Approach

Abstract: The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is the nation's broadest environmental law. This is the first book to present the critical steps and basic requirements of this important act in a user-friendly format. The authors take the reader through the provisions of NEPA and the environmental review process. This book will help the reader decide of their actions are subject to NEPA; determine if they must prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); and prepare an EIS that meets the legal requirements.

Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Law

Abstract: In recent years, policymakers in the United States and worldwide have paid great attention to the criminal sanction as a tool for reaching environmental objectives. This article offers several arguments for the application of this penalty to behaviors that degrade the natural environment. Some are based on its deterrent capacity; some are less practical, focusing on a moral imperative to punish those who threaten human health or destroy natural resources. But arguments against criminalizing environmental law are also numerous. They emphasize its high costs, procedural complexity, and potential overkill effects. Decisions about the appropriate applicability of criminal sanctions need to be based on an evaluation of their actual legal and organizational advantages and disadvantages and a knowledge of other promising ideas to foster compliance. Such ideas range from subsidizing the polluter to publicizing his or her good or ill deeds.

Local Government Protection of Biodiversity: What Is Its Niche?

Abstract: Environmental law is dividing into two branches: pollution minimizationandbiodiversity protection. Local governments have been regulated to a minor role in the formulation and implementation of pollution control policy. In contrast, local governments have a major role to play in biodiversity protection. Federal and state endangered species protection and other statutes require that critical habitats be preserved on both public and private land. Despite various “revolutions” in land-use controls, local governments have the primary authority to regulate private land use, and their actions can influence the choices made by state and federal public land managers. This article discusses local government's authority to protect biodiversity and some of its legal constraints in exercising this authority.