International Law

An Inconvenient Truth: US doing better on climate change than Europe?

Posted on December 04, 2007
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports some suprising figures on US greenhouse emissions:The Bush Administration announced last week that U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide fell by 1.8% from 2005 to 2006. Output of all greenhouse gases was down 1.5% last year...

Bali high - or ballyhoo?

Posted on December 04, 2007
Now that Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, I'd expect that Kyoto-related debate and discussion in Australia would focus on:Can we meet our emissions targets in the first commitment period (2008 - 2012)?What happens after 2012? What will the new Kyoto Protocol or alternative post-Kyoto agreement look like?For the first issue, the die is really cast: there's not much we can change now in terms of domestic policy that will pay big dividends within the next 5 years...

Australia's political climate change

Posted on December 03, 2007
Australia has today ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Cat and I are back home after a great trip, to a new federal government and some important developments on climate change. Climate change was a prominent issue in the election campaign. My impression is that, while policy differences between the parties on this issue had narrowed since the former Liberal government announced earlier this year that it would establish a carbon trading scheme, the Liberals' regular climate skeptic rhetoric over the past decade (which only really changed this year) resulted in the distinct feeling that they were not genuine about climate change action...

What happened to Oikos?

Posted on September 12, 2007
Apologies to my loyal and very attractive readers for a lack of posts here lately. I'm acting in a new position at work which I'm loving but it's been a learning curve and a lot of work! Free time has largely been devoted to my thesis (first chapter now 4 weeks overdue - woops!) and - more importantly - planning a big overseas trip!Cat and I set off for a very exciting 9 weeks in Europe via San Francisco and the Phillipines in only a few days...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Can markets predict global warming?

Posted on August 22, 2007
It's been a little quiet at Oikos lately, as work has been particularly busy. I've also started researching for my thesis on whether prediction markets could effectively predict climate change and its impacts - something I've previously talked about. Could a well-functioning market in future temperatures or sea level rises be set up, and how might its predictions compare with the consensus forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?According to an article today on MSN, companies are starting to look at precisely such markets:Farmers have for generations used futures contracts on commodities such as corn and grain to provide insurance against poor weather and crops...

Australian Conservation Foundation looking for Economic Adviser

Posted on August 10, 2007
An illustration of how economics is becoming increasingly important in environmental debates, ACF is advertising for an economist to fill the apparently newly-created position of Economic Adviser.According to ACF:ACF?s advocacy to protect the environment increasingly involves economic analysis, and ACF has set a long-term strategic priority to transform Australia?s economy into one that is ecologically sustainable...

Kenneth Arrow and Thomas Schelling on Climate Change

Posted on July 18, 2007
The latest issue of The Economists' Voice is out, with two articles on the economics of climate change by Nobel Prize-winning economists.The first is an excellent primer on climate change by Kenneth Arrow: Global Climate Change: A Challenge to Policy...

Exposing the hidden costs of pollution

Posted on July 16, 2007
An article in today?s Sydney Morning Herald, which questions whether the Australian states could undermine national action on climate change, illustrates just why a broad-based national emissions trading scheme would be effective.Environment groups said the Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, needed to explain how he would curb rising greenhouse gas emissions at a time when Queensland and NSW were dramatically boosting coal exports and several states were approving big road and power projects that would increase climate change pollution?The NSW Treasurer [Michael Costa] favours building a new coal-fired power plant to meet the state's energy needs, in contrast to other proposals for more gas-fired generation or energy efficiency and demand management...

Live Earth concert this Saturday

Posted on July 03, 2007
Only 4 sleeps to go until the Live Earth concerts around the world - in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg on 7/7/07 - this Saturday!By the way, I have a couple of spare tickets to the Sydney concert, so email me at ozelaw [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au if you missed out...

Cheap ways to reduce greenhouse emissions

Posted on June 27, 2007
An interesting article in The Economist last month took a look at the cost of various options for reducing greenhouse emissions (summarised in the graph above).Two things are particularly notable:There are a number of options that have a negative cost...

Coming soon to an Australian high school near you?

Posted on June 24, 2007
Click picture to enlarge. More nuclear fun at Ethan Persoff's site.

Should carbon taxes be linked to global temperatures?

Posted on June 17, 2007
I?ve mentioned before the possibility of creating markets in long-term weather ? that is, betting on future climate change ? as a method of predicting and insuring against climate change. Betting markets are good at predicting future outcomes ? you can look at the odds on horses in a race if you want to get an idea of who?s likely to win...

Review of Environmental Economics and Policy

Posted on June 14, 2007
The first issue of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy is out and articles can be downloaded for free.The Review...seeks to fill the gap between traditional academic journals and the general interest press by providing a widely accessible yet scholarly source for the latest thinking on environmental economics and related policy...

Happy World Environment Day!

Posted on June 05, 2007

Who do you trust with the challenge of climate change?

Posted on June 04, 2007
That?s what Australia?s Prime Minister John Howard asked yesterday, when announcing his Government?s policy on climate change for the next election:We must get this right. If we get this wrong, it will do enormous damage to our economy; to jobs and to the economic wellbeing of ordinary Australians, especially low-income households...

Emissions trading - the report is out

Posted on May 31, 2007
The Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading has handed down its final report and it is now available.It recommends an emissions trading scheme based on the following principles:a long-term aspirational emissions abatement goal and associated pathways to provide an explicit guide for business investment and community engagement an overall emissions reduction trajectory that commences moderately, progressively stabilises, and then results in deeper emissions reductions over time and:· is sufficiently flexible that it can be periodically recalibrated by government to changing international and domestic circumstances through regular and transparent reviews· provides markets with the ability to develop a forward carbon price path to guide business investment decisions and help drive longer-term technology development ? markets would be expected to establish a low initial carbon price and a forward price curve that rises over timemaximum practical coverage of all sources and sinks, and of all greenhouse gases with permit liability placed on direct emissions from large facilities and on upstream fuel suppliers for other energy emissions with those sectors initially excluded from the emissions trading scheme subject to other policies designed to deliver abatement initial exclusion of agriculture and land use from the scheme though agricultural emissions should be brought into the scheme as practical issues are resolveda mixture of free allocation and auctioning of single-year dated emissions permits that:· provides an up-front, once-and-for-all, free allocation of permits as compensation to existing businesses identified as likely to suffer a disproportionate loss of value due to the introduction of a carbon price· ameliorates, through free allocation, the carbon-related exposures of existing and new investments in trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industries while key international competitors do not face similar carbon constraints, but which also provides ongoing incentives for abatement and adoption of industry best practice allows for the periodic auctioning of remaining permitsa ?safety valve? emissions fee designed to limit unanticipated costs to the economy and to business, particularly in the early years of the scheme, while ensuring an ongoing incentive to abaterecognition of a wide range of credible carbon offset regimes, domestically and internationallycapacity, over time, to link to other comparable national and regional schemes in order to provide the building blocks of a truly global emissions trading schemeincentives for firms to undertake abatement in the lead-up to the commencement of the scheme, including through the purchase of offset credits from carbon plantations, and potentially from other accredited activitiesrevenue from permits and fees to be used, in the first instance, to support emergence of low-emissions technologies and energy efficiency initiatives (the focus might shift more toward households and business as the scheme matures)...

PM's Emission Trading Task Group - report out midday today

Posted on May 31, 2007
I've just been informed that the report will be posted on the Task Group's website at midday today.Today's Sydney Morning Herald has a brief summary and the recommendations are a little disappointing (if not surprising). The good point is that it recommends a domestic cap-and-trade system (with fees for exceeding permit requirements - which makes it more like a hybrid cap-and-trade / carbon tax)...

The Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading

Posted on May 30, 2007
The Prime Minister?s Task Group on Emissions Trading gives its report to the PM today and is expected to recommend the introduction of a national emissions trading scheme in Australia.I have been pretty sceptical about the taskgroup, given its membership: of the twelve members, five are from within the government, three are from mining / resources companies, one is from a power company, two are from heavy energy users (aluminium and airline companies)...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.