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Climate Change Law in an Era of Multi-Level Governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2012

Jacqueline Peel ,
Lee Godden  and
Rodney J. Keenan
Jacqueline Peel
Affiliation:
Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: j.peel@unimelb.edu.au
Lee Godden
Affiliation:
Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: l.godden@unimelb.edu.au
Rodney J. Keenan
Affiliation:
School of Land and Environment, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: rkeenan@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

As international negotiations struggle to deliver timely, binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels, the environmental legal community has begun to contemplate the scope for climate governance ‘beyond’ the international climate change regime. Many see merit in a more decentralized, disaggregated approach, operating across multiple governance levels. This article examines the development of climate change law in an era of multi-level governance. It analyzes several case studies of current manifestations of multi-level governance in climate change law, including the fragmented global emissions trading system, developing arrangements governing forests and land-based sinks, the growth of climate litigation establishing transnational liability principles, efforts to ensure adaptation to unavoidable climate change, and the emergence in federal systems of a decentralized approach to climate change regulation. The article concludes by considering whether the emerging multi-level system of climate governance is adequate to meet broader international goals of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Keywords

Climate ChangeMulti-Level GovernanceUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)Kyoto ProtocolEmissions Trading
Type
Articles
Information
Transnational Environmental Law , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , October 2012 , pp. 245 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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39 Prins & Rayner, n. 18 above, at p. 974, suggest a ‘silver buckshot’ rather than a ‘silver bullet’ approach to climate policy.

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43 Marks & Hooghe, ibid., classify this as ‘Type 2’ multi-level governance or polycentricity. See, in particular, Sections 4 and 6 below.

44 The preamble to the Durban COP decision on Further Commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, n. 12 above, records an ‘aim’ to ensure that aggregate emissions of Annex I parties are reduced by at least 25–40% below 1990 levels by 2020, noting in this regard the relevance of the ongoing review of the sufficiency of this effort, to be completed by 2015.

45 This issue was recognized in Durban with a decision to continue to clarify Annex I parties self-nominated emissions reduction targets during 2012: Decision 2/CP.17, Outcome of the Work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention’, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2011/9/Add.1, 15 Mar. 2012 (AWG-LCA Outcome), available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/cop17/eng/09a01.pdf#page=4.

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77 Further information is available at: http://www.rggi.org.

78 See, e.g., a complaint filed against the Governor of New York in the Supreme Court of New York State, County of Albany, available at: http://cei.org/sites/default/files/RGGI%20complaint.pdf. The complaint notes that the Governor of New Jersey announced in May 2011 that the state will be pulling out of the RGGI scheme because of allegations of its ineffectiveness as a climate change mitigation measure.

79 Rabe, B.G., ‘Regionalism and Global Climate Change Policy: Revisiting Multistate Collaboration as an Intergovernmental Management Tool’, in Conlan, T.J. & Posner, P.L. (eds.), Intergovernmental Management in the 21st Century (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) pp. 176–208.Google Scholar

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81 Close to 90% of allowances were auctioned at quarterly regional auctions in 2009 and 2010.

82 As at Sept. 2011, the scheme had generated $900.5 million with 80% of this used to fund renewable energy programmes (11%), energy efficiency (52%) and direct assistance (14%), and other GHG reduction projects (1%): RGGI Inc, Investment of Proceeds from RGGI CO2 Projects, Feb. 2011, at p. 2, available at: http://www.rggi.org/docs/Investment_of_RGGI_Allowance_Proceeds.pdf.

83 ‘Fact Sheet: RGGI Offsets’, 19 Aug. 2010, available at: http://www.rggi.org/docs/RGGI_Offsets_in_Brief.pdf.

84 Bluemel, n. 76 above.

85 Available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-110s3036pcs/pdf/BILLS-110s3036pcs.pdf.

86 Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, available at: http://www.midwesterngovernors.org/resolutions/GHGAccord.pdf.

87 Further information is available at: http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org.

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89 See further, California Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Cap-and-Trade Program’, available at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm. The scheme was to commence in 2012 but was delayed by a San Francisco court ruling finding non-compliance with Californian environmental impact assessment laws.

90 American Clean Energy and Security Act 2009, H.R. 2454, available at: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2454/show.

91 E.g., emissions standards for new motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act (US). See the discussion of the US Supreme Court ruling on this issue in Section 5.1 below.

92 Climate Change Response Act 2002 (New Zealand), available at: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0040/37.0/DLM158584.html. A review of the New Zealand ETS has recently been completed which makes recommendations for modifications to the scheme: see further Emissions Trading Scheme Review Panel, ‘Doing New Zealand’s Fair Share. Emissions Trading Scheme Review 2011: Final Report’, Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, 30 June 2011, available at: http://www.climatechange.govt.nz/emissions-trading-scheme/ets-review-2011/review-report.pdf.

93 Climate Change Response Act 2002 (New Zealand), ibid., Sch. 3.

94 New Zealand units can be purchased by foreign entities, but domestic participants cannot use Kyoto units (AAUs) to discharge their obligations: Climate Change Response Act 2002 (New Zealand), ibid., s. 18CB.

95 Government of New Zealand, ‘Other Government Policies and Measures’, last updated 25 May 2011, available at: http://www.climatechange.govt.nz/reducing-our-emissions/government-policies.html.

96 Climate Change Response Act 2002 (New Zealand), n. 92 above, Sch. 3.

97 Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009, available at: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/R4127. The Bill was revised several times but was eventually put on hold by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010, citing lack of progress in international climate change negotiations and opposition to passage of the legislation in the Australian Senate.

98 See Commonwealth of Australia, Securing a Clean Energy Future: the Australian Government’s Plan (2011), available at: http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Consolidated-Final.pdf. The legislative package, passed by the Australian Parliament in Nov. 2011, includes four main Acts: the Clean Energy Act 2011, the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011, the Climate Change Authority Act 2011 and the Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Act 2011.

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102 Clean Energy Act 2011 (Cth), s. 14, available at: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2011A00131.

103 F. Jotzo, ‘A Price Floor for Australia’s Emissions Trading Scheme?’, commissioned paper for the Multi-Party Committee on Climate Change, 17 May 2011, at p. 6, available at: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/multi-party-committee/meetings/∼/media/publications/mpccc/jotzo-floor-price-mpccc-may.pdf.

104 Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Act 2011 (Cth), s. 8(4), available at: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2011B00179.

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106 Chicago Climate Exchange, ‘Fact Sheet’, June 2011, available at: https://www.theice.com/publicdocs/ccx/CCX_Fact_Sheet.pdf. Although trading operations were wound up at the end of 2010, the Exchange has launched a new Offsets Registry Program.

107 R.S. Jones & B. Yoo, ‘Improving the Policy Framework in Japan to Address Climate Change’, OECD Economics Department Working Paper No. 740, 4 Dec. 2009, at p. 8, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/218874608768. See also Office of Market Mechanisms, ‘Japan’s Voluntary Emissions Trading Scheme (JVETS)’, Ministry of the Environment, Japan, May 2011, available at: http://www.env.go.jp/en/earth/ets/jvets1105.pdf.

108 Linacre et al., n. 105 above, at p. 32.

109 H. Zhang (Melbourne PhD candidate), ‘China’s Energy Conservation and Carbon Emissions Reduction System: Development and Status Quo of the Regulatory and Institutional Framework’, July 2011, unpublished manuscript on file with authors.

110 These rules were subsequently affirmed in Decision 16/CMP.1 adopted by the first Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2005/cmp1/eng/08a03.pdf.

111 IPCC, Good Practice Guidance for Land-use, Land-use Change and Forestry (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2003).Google Scholar

112 Art. 12 Kyoto Protocol.

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116 See ‘Project Activities’, available at: http://cdm.unfccc.int/Projects/index.html.

117 Forestry projects made up 21% of the total voluntary market in 2010: Peters-Stanley, M., Hamilton, K., Marcello, T. & Sjardin, M., Back to the Future: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2011, A Report by Ecosystem Marketplace & Bloomberg New Energy Finance (Ecosystem Marketplace & Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 2011).Google Scholar

118 Linacre et al., n. 105 above, at p. 54.

119 Additionality requires emissions reductions that would not have occurred in the absence of the offset scheme incentive; permanence refers to the need to ensure long-term preservation of the carbon sink; and anti-leakage requirements aim to prevent material increases in emissions elsewhere, which cancel out the abatement that would otherwise result from the project.

120 K. Hamilton, U. Chokkalingam & M. Bendana, ‘State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root and Branching Out’, Ecosystem Marketplace, 14 Jan. 2010, available at: http://moderncms.ecosystemmarketplace.com/repository/moderncms_documents/SFCM.1.pdf.

121 Le Quere, C., et al. ., ‘Trends in the Sources and Sinks of Carbon Dioxide’ (2009) 2(12) Nature Geosciences, pp. 831–6.Google Scholar

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123 Convention Agreement, n. 10 above, at paras. 68–79. See also F. Daviet, ‘From Copenhagen to Cancun: Forests and REDD+’, World Research Institute, 23 Nov. 2010, available at: http://www.wri.org/stories/2010/11/copenhagen-cancun-forests-and-redd.

124 SBSTA, Methodological Guidance for Activities relating to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the Role of Conservation, Sustainable Management of Forests and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks in Developing Countries, UN Doc. FCCC/SBSTA/2011/L.25/Add.1, 3 Dec. 2011, available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/sbsta/eng/l25.pdf.

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129 See, e.g., the UN REDD-readiness programme, and Cerbu, G.A., Swallow, B.M. & Thompson, D.Y., ‘Locating REDD: A Global Survey and Analysis of REDD Readiness and Demonstration Activities’ (2011) 14 Environmental Science & Policy, pp. 168–80.Google Scholar

130 Details available at: http://wbcarbonfinance.org/Router.cfm?Page=BioCF.

131 World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership, details available at: http://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp.

132 See UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1, n. 10 above.

133 See n. 124 above.

134 Peel, J., ‘The Role of Climate Change Litigation in Australia’s Response to Global Warming’ (2007) 24(2) Environmental and Planning Law Journal, pp. 90–105.Google Scholar

135 Ghaleigh, N., ‘“Six Honest Serving Men”: Climate Change Litigation as Legal Mobilization and the Utility of Typologies’ (2010) 1(1) Climate Law, pp. 31–61, at 45.Google Scholar

136 Burns, W. & Osofsky, H., Adjudicating Climate Change: State, National and International Approaches (Cambridge University Press, 2009).Google Scholar

137 Peel, J., ‘Issues in Climate Change Litigation’ (2011) 5(1) Carbon and Climate Law Review, pp. 15–24.Google Scholar

138 Osofsky, H., ‘The Continuing Importance of Climate Change Litigation’ (2010) 1(1) Climate Law, pp. 3–29.Google Scholar

139 Preston, B., ‘Climate Change Litigation’ (2011) 5(1) Carbon and Climate Law Review, pp. 3–14Google Scholar. For a discussion of climate litigation in the EU context, see Faure & Peeters (eds.), n. 69 above.

140 There has also been a significant jurisprudence developed by the European courts around issues associated with implementation of the EU ETS. This case law serves a ‘boundary-testing’ function seeking to establish the limits of the existing regulatory regime: see Ghaleigh, above n. 135, at pp. 47–8.

141 Massachusetts v. EPA 127 S Ct 1438 (2007).

142 Osofsky, n. 138 above, at p. 5.

143 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ‘Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act’, Federal Register, 2009, vol. 74, 66496–546Google Scholar. This finding is now the subject of a further court challenge.

144 Massachusetts v. EPA, n. 141 above, at pp. 1457–8.

145 Ibid., at p. 1457.

146 Ibid.

147 Gray v. Minister for Planning (2006) 152 LGERA 258 (Anvil Hill).

148 Ibid., at p. 286.

149 Recent contributions on the topic of climate liability include Faure and Peeters, n. 69 above, and Lord, R., Goldberg, S., Rajamani, L. & Brunée, J. (eds.), Climate Change Liability: Transnational Law and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2012).Google Scholar

150 See, e.g., the Australian case of Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Proserpine/Whitsunday Branch Inc v Minister for the Environment and Heritage (2006) 232 ALR 510.

151 Osofsky, n. 32 above.

152 Ibid., at p. 590.

153 Gray v. Minister for Planning, n. 147 above, at 288.

154 H. Osofsky, ‘Litigation’s Role in US Climate Change Regulation: Implications of AEP v. Connecticut’, Presentation at ‘Beyond a Carbon Price: A Framework for Climate Change Regulation in Australia’, Melbourne Law School, Australia, 11–12 Aug. 2011.

155 E. Levina & D. Tirpak, ‘Key Adaptation Concepts and Terms’, OECD/IEA Project for the Annex I Expert Group on the UNFCCC (OECD and International Energy Agency, Paris, 2006). There are several definitions now available on the UNFCCC website at: http://unfccc.int.

156 Ibid.

157 Pielke, R., Prins, G., Rayner, S. and Sarewitz, D., ‘Lifting the Taboo on Adaptation’ (2007) 445 Nature, pp. 597–8Google Scholar, at 598.

158 IPCC, ‘Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report: Summary for Policy Makers’, 2007, at pp. 7–8, available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-spm.pdf.

159 Pielke et al., n. 157 above.

160 Srinivasan, U., ‘Economics of Climate Change: Risk and Responsibility by World Region’ (2010) 10(3) Climate Policy, pp. 298–316.Google Scholar

161 See particularly AWG-LCA Outcome, n. 45 above, Section III, which elaborates the modalities and composition of the Adaptation Committee.

162 Adger, W.N. et al. ., ‘Assessment of Adaptation Practices, Options, Constraints and Capacity’, in Parry, M. et al. . (eds.), Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC, 2007), at p. 717.Google Scholar

163 See, e.g., Garnaut, R., Garnaut Climate Change Review (Cambridge University Press, 2008).Google Scholar

164 Pielke et al., n. 157 above, at p. 598.

165 Garnaut, n. 163 above, at p. 364.

166 Adger et al., n. 162 above.

167 Lorenzoni, I., Nicholson-Cole, S. & Whitmarsh, L., ‘Barriers Perceived to Engaging with Climate Change among the UK Public and Their Policy Implications’ (2007) 17(3/4) Global Environmental Change, pp. 445–59.Google Scholar

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169 Hamin, E.M. & Gurran, N., ‘Urban Form and Climate Change: Balancing Adaptation and Mitigation in the USA and Australia’ (2009) 33 Habitat International, pp. 238–45.Google Scholar

170 Hobbs, R.J., ‘Woodland Restoration in Scotland: Ecology, History, Culture, Economics, Politics and Change’ (2009) 90 Journal of Environmental Management, pp. 2857–65.Google Scholar

171 Craig, R.K., ‘“Stationarity is Dead” – Long Live Transformation: Five principles for Climate Change Adaptation Law’ (2010) 34(1) Harvard Environmental Law Review, pp. 9–75.Google Scholar

172 McDonald, J., ‘The Adaptation Imperative: Managing the Legal Risks of Climate Change Impacts’, in Bonyhady, T. & Christoff, P. (eds.), Climate Law in Australia (Federation Press, 2007), pp. 124–41.Google Scholar

173 Scott, n. 37 above, at p. 26.

174 Peel, J. & Power, M., ‘Climate Change Law: Lessons from the Californian Experience’ (2010) 27 Environmental and Planning Law Journal, pp. 169–88.Google Scholar

175 State of California Air Resources Board, ‘California Cap-and-Trade Program’, Resolution 10-42, 20 Oct. 2011, available at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2010/capandtrade10/res11-32.pdf.

176 These measures include the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Clean Car Standard, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, Net Energy Metering, the Californian Solar Initiative, the New Solar Homes Partnership and Emissions Performance Standards.

177 For discussion of the Australian governance system see Peel, J. & Godden, L., ‘Australian Environmental Management: A “Dams” Story’ (2005) 28(3) University of New South Wales Law Journal, pp. 668–95, at 670–82.Google Scholar

178 The scheme was created in 2002 through amendments to the Electricity Supply Act 1995 (NSW) and the Electricity Supply (General) Regulation 2001 (NSW). It commenced operation in 2003.

179 Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010 (ACT); Climate Change (State Action) Act 2008 (Tas); Climate Change and Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Act 2007 (SA); Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic).

180 See, e.g., the proposed review of the Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic), n. 186 below.

181 Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic), s. 5(1), available at: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/climate-change/victorian-climate-change-act-2010. With a change of government in Victoria to a conservative party, the government has recently backed away from this target. A recent review of the Act recommended that the 20% target should be repealed, which the State Government has supported: Victorian Government, Response to the Recommendations of the Climate Change Act Review, Mar. 2012, at p. 5, available at http://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/136486/CCAREV-Report_online.pdf.

182 Climate Change Act 2008 (UK), s. 5(1)(a).

183 Clean Energy Act 2011 (Cth), n. 102 above, ss. 17 and 18. However, the Act makes provision for the adoption of carbon pollution caps in regulations that might adopt a more ambitious reduction trajectory: s. 14.

184 See Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic), s. 17; Climate Change Act 2008 (UK), s. 16.

185 See Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic), s. 16; Climate Change Act 2008 (UK), ss. 56, 58–59.

186 The Victorian legislation provides for an automatic review on introduction of legislation for a national ETS into the federal parliament but does not specify any guidelines for that review: Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic), s. 19. See also n. 181 above.

187 See also Cole, D.H., ‘From Global to Polycentric Climate Governance’ (2011) 2 Climate Law, pp. 395–413Google Scholar

188 Ostrom, n. 24 above.

189 Prins et al., n. 22 above, at p. 7.

190 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Montreal (Canada), 16 Sept. 1987, in force 1 Jan. 1989, available at: http://ozone.unep.org/new_site/en/montreal_protocol.php.

191 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Stockholm (Sweden), 22 May 2001, in force 17 May 2004, available at: http://www.pops.int.