Environment

The Nature of Environmental Risk in Australia

John Taberner

In Australia, land use planning legislation and pollution control legislation impose a wide range of criminal and civil liability.

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Regulating Carbon: New Challenges for Environmental Lawyers

David J Hayes

Globalisation of the legal profession has accelerated in recent years, particularly with the growth of cross-border transactions and increased access to international capital markets. Until relatively recently, environmental law has resisted the trend toward legal globalisation, given its traditional focus on the localised impacts of projects and businesses. Global warming, however, is changing all of that. Environmental lawyers are finding themselves at the forefront of a newly-international environmental practice as companies around the world address a kaleidoscope of new regulatory requirements, investment opportunities, and disclosure obligations arising out of international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and fast-developing domestic requirements aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other ‘greenhouse’ gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

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Climate Change Regulation in The EU

Owen Lomas

Jennifer Wallace

Climate change is rarely out of the headlines these days, and has won a firm place on the political agenda. There is little serious dispute that action should be taken to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and avoid the risk of severe consequences from climate change. There is considerably less agreement on exactly how to balance the need to reduce emissions with a desire for economic growth and high standards of living. This article looks at the new regulatory environment in the EU emerging from this tension.

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Introduction to Environmental Law by Karl Moor

Karl Moor

Vice-president and associate general counsel Southern Company

Environmental law is a complex web made up of statutes, treaties, regulations, executive orders, agency practice, and other legal authorities. Mastering this web, or even a subset of it, could be a life’s work for any attorney. But practising environmental law effectively requires not only a thorough understanding of these legal authorities, but also an understanding of the various fora in which they arise – administrative, judicial, legislative and public policy.

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