Book dossier

International Climate Change Law and State Compliance

by Alexander Zahar

"With emission-reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol now extended to 2020, "Kyoto compliance" will remain the reference case for state compliance with climate change obligations throughout the rest of the decade. This is the first book on state compliance that treats the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and their subordinate institutions as case studies in new international trends regarding state compliance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from UNFCCC decisions to national-court judgments, this book clarifies the multiple layers of state compliance within the evolving international and transnational climate change regime. It provides a conceptual framework and mode of evaluation of the regulatory elements that have evolved to date. It comments on the current fragmentation (under the Bali Roadmap process) and possible future unification of accountability and enforcement elements (under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action). The book makes a unique contribution to the question of compliance of states with obligations flowing from the international climate change regime. It argues that the monitoring, reporting, and verification of state emissions is the foundation upon which the international climate change regime is built. Finally it looks to the future of state compliance under the "next-generation" global climate change treaty to take effect as of 2020. This original synthesis in state compliance, a fundamental area of climate change regulation, is aimed at researchers and postgraduate students in environmental law, international law, international relations and environmental management"-- "This is the first book on state compliance that treats the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and their subordinate institutions as case studies in new international trends regarding state compliance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from UNFCCC decisions to national-court judgements, this book clarifies the multiple layers of state compliance within the evolving international and transnational climate change regime. It provides a conceptual framework and mode of evaluation of the regulatory elements that have evolved to date. It comments on the current fragmentation (under the Bali Roadmap process) and possible future unification of accountability and enforcement elements (under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action)"--