By Xiaoyi Wang

Picture: Globe License: Public Domain

In 2017, because of the changes in administration, environmental enforcement policies around the world have changed.

United States of America

In the United States, the Trump Administration has brought uncertainty to the US enforcement picture. All enforcement constituencies (state agencies and environmental groups) are still assessing what roles and strategies to take as directional shifts at the federal level will likely influence responses by states and NGOs. The shift of administration led to EPA enforcement moving back to the "traditional" environmental programs – air, water, waste.

European Union

The European Commission has conducted a broad EU Environmental implementation review (EIR). The EU also adopted new rules (Dec. 2016) for member states to reduce air pollution by primary particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and volatile organic components. In addition, the EU has set out environmental plans and proposed initiatives to achieve their 2020 goals.

China

China has implanted tougher environmental policies in 2017, a great expansion under President Xi’s “War on Pollution” initiative. In 2017, China also shut 27 coal mines in Shanxi and shutdown responsible corporate actors around China to control air pollution.

The Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. President Trump announced in June that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that fighting climate change is, at best, a low priority.  Many are unsure whether the Paris Agreement framework will still work if the United States indeed withdraws from the agreement. In accordance with Article 28 of the Paris Agreement, the earliest possible effective withdrawal date by the United States cannot be before November 4, 2020, four years after the Agreement came into effect in the United States and one day after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the Montreal Protocol)

The Montreal Protocol celebrated its thirty years on September 16, 2017. After thirty years of enforcement, the treaty has been ratified or accepted by all 197 UN member states. As one of the most successful and effective environmental treaties ever negotiated and implemented, the Montreal Protocol has helped reduce the depletion of the ozone layer by about 20 percent from 2005 to 2016.

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March 08, 2018

By Xiaoyi Wang

Image: Porapak Apichodilok License: Creative Common Zero

Background

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the Montreal Protocol) celebrated its thirty years on September 16, 2017. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out 99 percent of nearly 100 ozone-depleting substances (ODS), including CFCs, HCFCs and halon. As one of the most successful and effective environmental treaties ever negotiated and implemented, the Montreal Protocol has helped reduce the depletion of the ozone layer by about 20 percent from 2005 to 2016. The shrinking of the ozone hole will bring numerous benefits to people’s health (reducing the chance of having skin cancers and eye disorders) and agriculture. It will also help slowdown global climate change and to prevent extreme weather events (hurricanes, floods and droughts). The Montreal Protocol was a “milestone for all people and our planet,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The treaty has been ratified or accepted by all 197 UN member states. “Thirty years ago the world proved it can come together and tackle a global problem with global resolve,” said Erik Solheim, head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The ozone layer is expected to return to 1980 levels between 2045 and 2060 as long as countries continue to meet their obligations.

The Success of the Montreal Protocol

There are a number of multinational treaties dealing with environment issues. Among them, the Montreal Protocol has achieved a great deal of success in atmosphere protection.  The lackluster compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, which was set in place to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, as the prominent counter-example. The success of the Montreal Protocol does not come from nowhere.

The Role of the United States

The United States government played an exceedingly aggressive role in producing the Montreal Protocol, which contributes to its success. By the 1980s, the industry within the United States achieved significant progress in producing safe substitutes for CFCs. Not only was the financial obstacle progressively removed, the ongoing disagreement within the Reagan Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was resolved after a careful cost-benefit analysis from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, which suggested that the costs of controls would be far lower than anticipated, and the benefits far higher. Considering the benefits to mankind and the cost of reducing CFCs when its substitute was readily available, even unilateral action was well-justified for the United States. “But if the world joined the Montreal Protocol, the benefits for the United States would be nearly tripled, because it would prevent 245 million cancers by 2165 including more than five million cancer deaths,” stated by Scott Barrett in Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treaty-Making.

Global Participation

To assist developing countries to meet their commitments, the Multilateral Fund (Fund) was established in 1991. To date, the Fund has approved activities including industrial conversion, technical assistance, training and capacity building worth over $3.6 billion. With the financial assistance from the Fund, developing countries largely comply with the Montreal Protocol. Currently, 147 of the 197 parties to the Montreal Protocol meet its criteria.

The other element that encouraged countries to ratify the Montreal Protocol was its trade provisions. The trade provision limits the signatories to trade only with other signatories on CFCs and other ODS. Once the main producing countries signed up to the treaty, it was only a matter of time before all countries joined in the system. 

After over thirty years in picture, the Montreal Protocol still benefits the mankind. The success of the Montreal Protocol provides a workable system when environment protection requires global cooperation. 

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January 24, 2018

By Aure Demoulin

Spurred by a sense of urgency and increasing global recognition that environmental deterioration is a pressing issue, several key developments took place in international environmental law in 2016. In addition to the Paris Agreement, 2016 was the year of the first-ever global agreement cutting pollution from commercial airlines, the Marrakech Summit, and environmental lawsuits on behalf of future generations.

First Meeting of the Prep Com: The UN General Assembly established a Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) to receive recommendations for an internationally binding legal agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The Prep Com held its first meeting from March 28 to April 8, 2016 and discussed the relationship between the proposed instrument and other existing agreements, as well as marine genetic resources, benefit-sharing, environmental impact assessments, capacity building, and marine technology transfer. The sustainable but efficient use of ocean resources is a hot topic in environmental law, and the Prep Com’s first meeting only preceded the third edition of the Hamburg International Environmental Law Conference by a few days. The Conference debated ways to conserve the oceans’ ecosystems, as well as the role International Environmental Law should play in regulating activities such as deep sea mining, marine energy generation, seabed pipeline and cable systems.

Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA): The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation is the first-ever global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions from commercial airlines. Announced on October 6, 2016, this sweeping deal aims to curb carbon dioxide emissions from the international aviation sector, as well as aviation pollution’s effect on climate. The deal will be implemented in phases (participation in the early years being entirely voluntary) and aims to put the industry on a path toward more sustainability. 191 nations have expressed intent to voluntarily participate.

Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol: On October 15, 2016, 197 countries endorsed the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The amendment aims to curb the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), powerful greenhouse gases, by more than 80 percent over the next 30 years in the hope to prevent up to 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 F) of global warming by the end of this century. Manufacturers have used HFCs to replace chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—phased out under the Montreal Protocol—as refrigerants in a variety of products. The amendment calls for developed countries to start reducing their consumption of HFCs by 2019 and for most developing countries to freeze consumption by 2024 or 2028. The new amendment pledges to provide funding for climate-friendly alternatives in developing countries.  

The Paris Agreement: The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the UN framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) meant to strengthen the global response to climate change. The agreement aims to curb greenhouse gases emissions in order to prevent a global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F). After 195 countries negotiated the agreement, final language was adopted on December 12, 2015, and the agreement was opened for signature on April 2, 2016. As of December 2016, 194 UNFCC members had signed the treaty, 132 of which had ratified it. In October 2016, enough countries had ratified the agreement for it to enter into force. As a result, the agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016.

The Marrakech Summit: The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12), and the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) were held in Bab Ighli, at the Marrakech Summit, Morocco from November 7-18, 2016. The Conference successfully demonstrated to the world that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is underway and that cooperation on climate change continues.

Global Lawsuits on Behalf of Young and Future Generations: In 2016, a global trend of lawsuits filed on behalf of future generations continued in the United States with a case filed in an Oregon District Court. The plaintiffs argued that by failing to protect public trust resources like water and air, the federal government is violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. Similarly, in June 2016, the Pakistan Supreme Court ruled in favor of seven-year-old petitioner Rabab Ali, allowing her constitutional climate change lawsuit to proceed. Yet another similar case is currently underway in the Philippines. In 2015, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands had ruled in favor of the Urgenda Foundation (representing multi-generations of citizens), compelling the government to reduce Dutch greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 (making current Dutch climate policies, which aim only for a 16% reduction, unlawful).

CETA: The EU-Canada Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CETA) is a new trade agreement between the EU and Canada. The European Parliament voted to adopt CETA on February 15, 2017, though EU national parliaments must approve the agreement before it can take full effect. However, throughout 2016, member of the European Parliament, such as Bart States, and public interest organizations had called for the rejection of CETA. States had warned that CETA risked undermining regulatory measures with regard to endocrine disruptors, which are estimated to cost Europe well over 150 billion Euros each year in additional health expenses. The European Commission has already acknowledged that mounting pressure from EU trade partners has led it to propose to lower standards of protection against endocrine disruptors. With CETA, Canada and Canadian businesses will be given increased leverage to pressure the EU not to introduce precautionary laws.

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March 31, 2017