Posts filed under 'International Environmental Law'
November 6th, 2009 at 11:25am
Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, recently released a statement describing the progress of the Doha Round and outlining plans for the continued negotiations in Geneva. Overall, Lamy reports that while the negotiations remain committed to their ambitions, there has been little tangible progress in the past week. He also emphasizes that ambitions will be best served in the future through multilateral text-based negotiations.
In the area of Agriculture, members are discussing market access issues with regard to tariff caps and tariff-rate quotas, while also developing a template for scheduling commitments. Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) deliberations are occurring in several different formats, with both text-based debate and open-ended discussion over non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade.
Services discussions will now focus on domestic regulation through intensified text-based negotiations. Meanwhile, the Rules Group is honing in on anti-dumping and subsidies guidelines as well as regional trade agreements (RTAs). Deliberation on geographic identifications (GIs) for wine and spirits will also be more focused as members address four specific questions posed by the chair to encourage progress.
A new trade facilitation agreement is under formulation as members work to consolidate General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Articles for further negotiation. Additionally, the Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTESS) has allowed members to discuss environmental goods and services during a September workshop and is now encouraging members to highlight environmental goods of interest.
Small Group negotiations will continue on the Monitoring Mechanism for Special and Differential Treatment, occasionally requiring open-ended meetings for group debriefing. The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) will now discuss post-retaliation and compliance, having addresses transparency, amicus briefs and remand earlier this year.
For further information, please click here.
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March 30th, 2009 at 07:31am
Although it can play an important role, the vital task of protecting the environment during warfare cannot rely solely or primarily on international legal tools to succeed. So argues Dan Bodansky, a leading international law scholar, who sees the problem of wartime environmental degradation as one solved not by more legal rules or stricter enforcement but rather by more effective conflict prevention and resolution.
The problem of the environmental ramifications of armed conflict has garnered more and more attention in recent years. Events like the deliberate burning of Kuwaiti oil wells during the 1991 Gulf War and the destruction of a chemical facility during the 1998 NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo have raised questions about the extent to which international legal rules can, or should, protect the environment from combat or and punish those who (intentionally or not) damage it during wartime.
Bodansky argues that international lawyers should resist the temptation to create a new body of law designed to implement environmental safeguards during combat. Environmental disasters caused by belligerents, he argues, do not happen very often, and when they do, they have relatively little impact compared to the publicity they receive. Moreover, it is not immediately clear what legal regime could regulate conduct related to such issues. Additionally, wartime environmental destruction, Bodansky writes, is merely a symptom of larger problems relating to armed conflict: decay of rule of law, refugeeism, and the primacy of survival needs. The existing legal framework surrounding warfare, when it functions correctly, addresses these concerns sufficiently to make a new legal regime a hindrance.
For further information, please click here.
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April 21st, 2008 at 01:34pm
In a speech at the European Nuclear Assembly Conference, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs reiterated the importance of nuclear energy for the reduction of carbon emissions, while emphasizing the “need to strengthen the cooperation between EU Member states on the issues related to the safety and security of nuclear installations and the treatment of nuclear waste.”
Commissioner Piebalgs’ comments reflect the Commission’s commitment to invest in Europe’s rapidly aging power plants while addressing the public interest in nuclear safety and waste management through initiatives such as the High Level Group on Nuclear Safety and Waste Management, the European Nuclear Energy Forum and the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP).
For more information, click here.
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April 7th, 2008 at 11:07pm
On March 31, Ecuador filed an application against Colombia in the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding the aerial spraying of toxic herbicides by Colombia along the border the two countries share.
Ecuador asserts that the spraying by Colombia has “caused serious damage to people, to crops, to animals, and to the natural environment on the Ecuadorian side of the frontier, and poses a grave risk of further damage over time.â€
The application comes after Ecuador’s claim that efforts at negotiation with Colombia were unsuccessful. Ecuador asks the ICJ to declare that Colombia is in violation of international law, that it take steps to prevent the depositing of toxic herbicides on Ecuador’s territory, and that it indemnify Ecuador for any damages. Ecuador believes that the 1948 Pact of Bogotá the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances should apply to the case. Colombia has not yet formally responded to the application.
See here for more information.
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March 20th, 2008 at 03:59pm
In Commune de Mesquer v Total France SA and Total International Ltd, the European Court of Justice opined in favor of limiting liability under the polluter pays principle where the waste is not caused intentionally or recklessly. The plaintiff brought the suit for the costs of cleaning oil waste from beaches that resulted from the sinking of a defendant-owned ship. In practice, under the Waste Framework Directive, the financial burden of the disposal operation is on the persons who caused the waste, so long as there is an accusation that they contributed personally to the heavy oil leakage. The opinion relied on the International Liability Convention and the Convention on International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage to limit liability of oil producers, sellers, carriers while still meeting the ‘polluter pays’ principle.  Â
For further details on this case, click here.
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February 18th, 2008 at 05:48pm
José Manuel Barroso announced on January 23 that the EU will be pursuing a comprehensive environmental regulation strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020. His speech, entitled “20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Opportunity” set the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 20% and reaching 20% usage of renewable fuels. The methods employed in achieving these goals will include a new Emissions Trading System, binding national emissions targets, and a 10% target for biofuel usage.
The cost of the plan is estimated to be less than .5% of the EU’s GDP, or about 3 Euro per citizen per week.
See the original press release here. See the BBC coverage here.
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December 10th, 2006 at 07:47am
The EBRD is lending Bulgaria’s PostBank €15 million to help local industries to become more energy efficient. The loan helps private businesses to cut energy wastes and stimulates the investment in alternative powers using renewable energy. The EBRD is now the largest investor in Bulgaria with more than €1.3 billion committed to projects across the country. Working with its many partners, the Bank has mobilised more than €5.4 billion for projects in Bulgaria.
For a press release, see http://www.ebrd.com/new/pressrel/2006/173Dec06.htm
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