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Study of the legal aspects of joint implementation of emissions reduction commitments, emissions trading and development of clean energy technology.
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| 1.0 Projects | |||||||||
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ISDL Curriculum Materials for Judicial Education: CISDL has partnered with the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to compile Cases and Curriculum Materials on Sustainable Development Law, focusing specifically on a hypothetical challenge to Canadian climate change legislation. On the international level, these materials were part of a Judges Handbook that was reviewed, translated and published by UNEP. CISDL members served as external authors for UNEP and other partners. In Canada, this work was part of a contract with the NJI, where the materials were prepared for publication as a new computer-taught course / website. The NJI expressed great satisfaction with the materials and the course as it comes together, and arranged to purchase a bulk order of ‘Sustainable Development Law: Principles, Practices and Prospects’ (OUP, 2004) to send to judges. The sustainable development law course will first be offered, drawing on CISDL members as instructors and honorary chair, in the spring of 2006. The NJI sponsored a reception at the CISDL Climate Change Law Symposium in Montreal, on December 02, 2005, on the occasion of the Climate Change Convention COP 11/MOP 1, and has also renewed the contract with the CISDL in order to develop the online course materials into an Electronic Bench Book for use by the NJI and its member judges. |
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Climate Change & Kyoto Protocol Implementation Legal Research and Scholarly Dialogue: The CISDL is a member of an international group of climate law researchers and practitioners hosted by the Prototype Carbon Fund program in the World Bank Legal Vice-Presidency. This legal research has focused on legal implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, addressing potential synergies between legal obligations under climate and investment or trade law, emission trading and registry systems, land use change financing (LUCF), and voluntary covenants. In 2003, a legal brief and panel event at McGill Law Faculty furthered discussions. In 2004, CISDL authored a comparative study for UNEP North America on regulatory and voluntary greenhouse gas registries, and an article on the legal nature of emissions reduction credits for the ELI Environmental Law Journal. After meetings at the Conference of the Parties 9 in Milan, Italy in December 2003, a CISDL working paper was contributed to a University of Toronto / Health Canada workshop on adaptation, health and climate change in Ottawa, and this led to a chapter on legal aspects of adaptation to climate change for a new book with University of Toronto Press. A chapter was also prepared on Canada’s participation in the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms for a new book, Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms(Oxford University Press, 2004). In February, 2005, CISDL hosted a workshop on climate policy and law at Oxford University with Sir Crispin Tickell, and in June, 2005, hosted a second session with Dr. Charlotte Streck. A panel event was held at McGill University to celebrate the entry into force of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on February 16, 2005, and a presentation was given at the annual conference by the British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) leading to a chapter on Canadian and UK innovations for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, for a new book with Martinus Nijhoff in 2006. |
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International Symposium on Sustainable Development Law and Policy related to Climate Change and Follow up Academic Volume Over 9,000 delegates participated in the successful COP 11 / MOP 1 of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol in Montreal in December, 2005. On this occasion, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), in collaboration with the McGill University Faculty of Law and the Centre d’Études et de Recherche Internationale de l’Université de Montréal (CERIUM), organized “Strengthening Climate Cooperation, Compliance & Coherence”, an international law symposium on sustainable developments in law and policy on climate change. Funded by Foreign Affairs Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency, the event took place on December 2nd and 3rd, at McGill University Faculty of Law, and was highly successful. It brought together over 200 expert participants and students, amongst which were government negotiators, academics, lawyers, scientists and policy-makers, to debate the most recent trends and practices in sustainable development law related to climate change. Substantive panels and workshops were chaired by leading experts in international law, and sponsored by the European Studies Institute, the National Judicial Institute, Climate Focus, Fasken Martineau LLP, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, and others. The focus of the event, through its expert panels and workshops, was threefold; Cooperation: Recent developments in law and policy to support Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the potential for future implementation and advancement, Compliance: Recent developments in international law and policy to strengthen compliance with the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, and future directions for facilitation and enforcement mechanisms, and Coherence: Intersections between global and domestic climate regimes, and other international regimes (trade and investment, indigenous peoples & other human rights, biodiversity, desertification, law of the sea, etc.). It provided an opportunity for participants to build their knowledge and capacity in this important emerging area, and many positive comments were received after the event. As part of the Symposium, a Special Guests Reception was held at the McGill Faculty Club, where a new book edited by a CISDL legal research fellow, which includes chapters by several members, Making Kyoto Work: Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol (OUP, 2005), was launched for Canada. The Reception also featured the launching of a new course for judges which uses a challenge to a climate bill as a hypothetical problem, and a presentation by the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. The Symposium proceedings are being edited into a new book on Sustainable Development Law and Policy Related to Climate Change, which will be submitted to Oxford and Cambridge University Presses in 2006/07. |
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Scoping a Manual on Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change The CISDL took on a project in 2004 - 2005 for the CIDA Environmental Policy Unit to scope the potential for a series of manuals on domestic implementation of sustainable development law. The scoping study report recommended the development of a new manual on climate change for regulators in developing countries. In 2005 – 2006, CIDA agreed to support this initiative, and an international experts meeting was held, directly after the Climate Law Symposium in Montreal on December 04, 2005, to review a draft outline for the manual. It was decide at the meeting, which was attended by 20 experts including 11 from developing countries, that the manual would focus on ‘sustained economic growth’ goals of the Kyoto Protocol, and seek to engaged development and finance ministries from developing countries in developing and supporting new laws related to implementation of international law on climate change. The first draft manual should be available for review in the spring and summer of 2006. |
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ArcticNet Legal and Policy Analysis of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic This new four-year project, funded by the NSERC through the ArcticNet, will study the implications of a changing climate in governance and interactions with Inuit Land-claims organizations; environmental protection and human rights; and international sovereignty and diplomacy. It will develop, debate and disseminate legal and policy knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national and international policies to address the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic; and build new partnerships and capacity between national and international legal researchers, and Northern researchers, organisations and communities, especially from indigenous peoples and scientific communities, working on law and policy issues related to climate change and the Arctic. As the impact of climate change will be most acute in the North, the project will contribute to the development and dissemination of the knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national policies to help Canadians, and more specifically northern aboriginal communities, face the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic.
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| 1.1 Team Members | |||||||||
Chris Tung is the Lead Counsel of the Climate Change and Vulnerability Law Programme as well as partner in the Hong Kong office of Mallesons Stephen Jaques Research Fellows with the Climate Change Programme include Senior Research Fellows Professor Richard Janda and Professor Hélène Trudeau and Research Fellows Charlotte Stretck, Dr. Lavanya Rajamani , Maria Villaveces, Professor Andrew Newcombe, and Dayna Nadine Scott. Associate Fellow Karina Kessaris Other CISDL members who cooperate with the Climate Change Law team include associate fellow Karina Kessaris , and Jennifer Ross-Jones, Patricia Ochman, and Claire Stockwell. |
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| 1.2 Partners | |||||||||
The National Judicial Institute |
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1.3 Events |
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| 1.4 Publications | |||||||||
Books Dr. Lavanya Rajamani, Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006) C. Streck & D. Freestone, eds., Making Kyoto Work: Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) D. French, International Law and Policy of Sustainable Development (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004). Journal Article M. Gehring & C. Streck, ‘Emission Trading: Legal Nature, Title, Transfer and Taxation of Emission Allowances and Credits’ (2005) Georgetown Journal of Environmental Law. Selected book chapters Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Karina Kessaris & Kristin Price, “Complying with the Kyoto Protocol: Health, Social and Economic Challenges” in Understanding the Nexus of Health, Social and Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Canadians, D. Macdonald, M. Erskine & J. Séguin eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006 – forthcoming) Markus W. Gehring & Kristin Price, “UK and Canadian Approaches to Kyoto Protocol Implementation” in Canadian and UK Perspectives on International Law, C. Waters, ed. (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006 – forthcoming). |
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1.5 Recommended Resources and Links |
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) International Institute for Sustainable Development Journal McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Special Issue: Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2006 |
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CISDL LEGAL PROGRAMMES |
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