Volume 2: Issue 1 (2006)
Editors' Note : Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Szandra Bereczky & Clarisse Kehler Siebert
A Message from the Quebec Minister of Sustainable Development
Hon. Thomas Mulcair
Sectoral CDM: Opening the CDM to the Yet Unrealized Goal of Sustainable Development
Christiana Figueres
Abstract: This article advocates for the enhancement of a sectoral Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) strategy to assist developing countries in achieving their sustainable development objectives and re-duce greenhouse gas emissions. After tracing the historical origins of the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol, the author observes that current CDM projects provide only fractious and marginal at-tempts at decarbonizing the global economy. The additionality clause of the Kyoto Protocol subsumes many countries’ energy-friendly policies under an environmental baseline that disqualifies them from benefits and creates perverse incentives to introduce new CDM initiatives. The author reinvigorates the idea of a top-down sectoral CDM approach, whereby governments would co-ordinate CDM projects on a broader level and integrate climate considerations into larger economic growth policies. Under the sectoral CDM approach, the policy would in effect be the project, so progress would be measured against a situation in which the policy did not exist at all. The article outlines the benefits of such a method and the steps necessary to build the technical capacity of governments to coordinate such a project. Only through such harmonization, it is argued, can CDM projects have any meaningful effect in mitigating greenhouse gases.
William C. G. Burns
Abstract: Although the Kyoto Protocol has been viewed as a milestone in international climate change policy, its potential to stem the tide of environmental degradation may prove illusory on two fronts: first, the U.S. has declined to become a Party to the Protocol; and second, even full implementation by all industrialized States would only modestly affect atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, climate change litigation in national and international fora is emerging as an alternative means by which to hold States and private actors accountable for climate change damages. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a promising instrument through which such action might be taken, given its broad definition of pollution to the marine environment and the dispute resolution mechanisms contained within its provisions. The paper outlines the history and content of UNCLOS, examines potential harms that could give rise to action under the Convention, and discusses the likely legal barriers to bringing and proving such claims. The failure of the world’s major greenhouse gas emitting nations to seriously address climate change has made litigation unavoidable. As such, UNCLOS may prove to be a primary battle-ground for climate change issues in the future.
Conservation of Tropical Forests under the Clean Development Mechanism: A Path Forward
Anna Forberg
Student submission
Abstract: This article argues that including forest conservation under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a viable next step in the effort to protect tropical forests, providing an economic, market-based incentive which would challenge unsustainable logging and conversion of forested lands for agricultural purposes. A case study, the Noel Kempff Carbon Action Project in Bolivia, is presented as an example of how such an approach is consistent with the goal of sustainable development in developing countries. Close ties between the objectives, principles, and commitments of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and those of the United Nations Frame-work Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provide a legal basis for including conservation under the CDM.
Book Review: "Joining Forces for Environmental Governance"
Benjamin J. Richardson
Reviewed: Emerging Forces in Environmental Governance, Norichika Kanie and Peter M. Haas, eds. (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2004) 295 pp.
