| Climate litigation
Chief researcher: Tim Bonyhady
Project brief
As concerns about climate change have increased over the past decade,
litigation has arisen from conflicts regarding mitigation and adaptation
issues, including wind farm developments, coal mine and power plant approvals,
and residential developments. This litigation has provided Australia with
a distinctive body of climate case law, covering merits decisions through
to judicial review. Courts are having to come to terms with the complexities
and uncertainties that characterise climate science, while simultaneously
grappling with concepts such as ecologically sustainable development and
their relevance to climate disputes. The CCLP is studying the development
of climate law in Australia and the evolution of an environment and climate
jurisprudence.
International climate law
Chief researcher: Andrew Macintosh
Project brief
Preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system
will require the development of a robust international legal framework
for mitigation and adaptation. The CCLP is focusing its energies on two
aspects of the emerging regime:
- the rules and processes governing country commitments regarding both
mitigation and adaptation under the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change and other associated agreements; and
- the resolution of tensions between international climate, environment
and trade law.
Publications and work in progress
Regulating illegal timber imports: are labels and bans allowed under international
trade law? (in progress)
Border tax adjustment schemes: are they compatible with international
trade law? (in progress)
Renewable energy laws and their
relationship with the national emissions trading scheme
Chief researcher: James Prest
The politics of climate law
Chief researcher: Brad Jessup
Project brief
Government and administrative decisions about responses to climate change,
including the development of laws, international engagement, and the approval
or rejection of mitigation proposals, have been highly politicised in
Australia and abroad. An understanding of the political process, and the
application of knowledge, rationality, and values is therefore critical
to explaining the present state and history of energy and climate laws,
and to recognising priorities and foreshadowing the next round of legal
developments.
Within the CCLP, we are interested in framing our investigations within
the policy making process in order to explore how and why energy and climate
laws have been slow to develop and respond to the climate change challenge,
and to understand why they have been unable to steer a path towards and
low carbon society without conflict.
Publications and work in progress
B. Jessup, ‘When environmentalists collide: understanding conflicting
views and values of environmentalists to wind energy’, (forthcoming).
A. Macintosh, ‘Domestic Influences on the Howard Government’s
Climate Policy: Using the past as a guide to the future’, Asia
Pacific Journal of Environmental Law (forthcoming).
Regulating transport
Chief researcher: Andrew Macintosh
Project brief
Transport is responsible for approximately 15 per cent of Australia’s
annual direct greenhouse gas emissions, split roughly 65/35 between the
passenger and freight tasks. A large proportion of transport emissions
will be included in the proposed national emissions trading scheme, providing
the framework for the reform of the sector. However, there are likely
to be significant omissions, including indirect greenhouse gas emissions
and international aviation and shipping. The object of this research project
is to determine:
- what aspects of the transport task should be included in the emissions
trading scheme; and
- how best to control transport emissions that fall outside of the scheme.
Publications and work in progress
Aviation emissions: how to stop aviation becoming a climate menace (in
progress)
Shipping and greenhouse: can mode shifting help solve the problem with
freight emissions? (in progress)
Human rights and climate change
Chief researcher: Matthew Zagor
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