The objective of this study is to conduct a critical evaluation of the environmental law framework applicable to carbon capture and storage (hereafter CCS) in South Africa. The discussion begins by confirming that CCS has a place in environmental law as a mitigation measure. The inclusion of CCS in the clean development mechanism could incentivise the development of environmental law frameworks for CCS in South Africa. Implementation of CCS is gradual, with only eight large scale integrated CCS projects having been established around the world. An appreciation of key scientific concepts is helpful for an understanding of the CCS process. The CCS project life cycle and related impacts on the environment provide a context for discussion of the legal requirements accompanying the CCS life cycle. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 constitute appropriate framework legislation for CCS. Decision 3/CMP.1, Modalities and procedures for a clean development mechanism as defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol adopted by the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol held at Montreal from 28 November to 10 December 2001 March 2006 provides international legal requirements accompanying the project life cycle against which the South African legal framework is examined. Some provisions of additional South African laws and policies will be applicable to CCS depending on the nature of the specific CCS project, but specific regulations may have to be developed for South Africa. Policy documents have been gradually bringing clarity to the way forward in arriving at a legal framework for CCS, and by reference to existing local legislation and international guidance, an environmental law framework for CCS can be developed for South Africa. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Rand Water contracted UNISA to develop a monetary valuation method for its open spaces and their inherent ecological functions. This study began by reviewing existing contemporary definitions of open space in South Africa and then identifying their key characteristics. The research project then looked at the economic contribution that open spaces make to the economy as a basis for environmental valuation. By determining the economic value of open spaces, decision makers can be informed about the importance of open space provision, preservation and maintenance. The project applied the participatory action research method which requires the active participation of focus groups. The focus groups consisted of Rand Water employees who deal with open spaces in their respective areas of work. During the literature review and problem formulation the various limitations of environmental valuation methods became evident. It became apparent that the development of new valuation methods would not be possible before existing valuation methods had been tested to see if they could feasibly be applied to open space in the Rand Water context. A literature review also determined that open space valuation studies in South Africa are very limited, which made it difficult to formulate a localised context. It was furthermore found that environmental valuers prefer to use the contingent valuation, travel cost and hedonic pricing methods. These methods rely on revealed and stated preferences of open space users to infer an economic value for an open space. Access to Rand Water’s open spaces is largely limited owing to strict access control. The excludability of open space users therefore hampers the generation of sufficient data to apply revealed and stated preference valuation methods. On the basis of this finding, it was decided to eliminate the contingent valuation and travel cost methods from this study. It was decided to apply the constraint composition theory, under the grounded theory model, to study the constraints or moderators which could affect the feasibility of environmental valuation application to Rand Water open spaces. Four moderators were then identified which could influence the outcome of the feasibility assessment. These are the limitations of the methods, the limitations of the legal framework, the limitations of the user and the limitations of the study area. It was found that the limitations of the methods were a moderator owing to their inherent data requirements. The only suitable valuation methods vi were found to be market based as they were not influenced by the excludability factor. These methods include the replacement cost, damage cost avoided, restoration cost and defensive expenditure valuation methods. The focus group was introduced to each method by participating in a method application exercise. Questionnaires regarding each method were completed to test variables. The legal framework was found not to be a moderator since even though there are limited direct provisions in legislation to mandate environmental valuation, there are legal principles which require economic impacts to be measured and damage to the environment to be estimated. These principles in themselves have supported litigation cases and the mere admission of environmental value estimates in court as evidence and support to a case therefore sets the required legal precedence and mandates further application. The user was found not to be a moderator. Feedback from the focus groups as well as an environmental resource economics workshop held at the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment showed that users understood environmental valuation principles, their benefits and limitations. With training, environmental scientists can apply these methods. The study area was found to be a moderator. The limited access for potential open space users, limited harvesting, limited agriculture and limited open space categories result in limited values that can be measured. In conclusion, it was found that not all environmental valuation methods can be applied to Rand Water open space owing to inherent limitations of the methods and the study area. Only market-based methods were found to be suitable for use on Rand Water open space. Notwithstanding the limitations of the methods and study area, which restrict the ability of valuers to obtain a total economic value for Rand Water open space, the available suite of methods can provide an indicator of value for environmental goods and services that flow from the utility’s open spaces. It was concluded that the application of environmental valuation methods to Rand Water open space is feasible within the context of the identified limitations. / Environmental Sciences / M.Sc. (Environmental Management)

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Currently, China is facing a challenge of sustainable development. The worsening air quality and increasing haze days in Beijing and many other cities in China have exerted serious health impacts and an economic toll. Pollution control and emission reduction have become an urgent issue that Chinese governments need to tackle. Hence, stricter Environmental laws and Clean Air Plans have been published and implemented in recent years in China. The developed countries had experienced the similar industrial development accompanying by air pollution problem during the middle of last century. Environmental legislating against helped many developed countries solve the pollution and achieved positive EKC trend – air quality improvements along with continuous economic growth. The thesis tries to study the previous lessons and experiences on pollution abatement from some developed countries and find what lesson’s China can draw from them on pollution control and changing towards a sustainable development. The thesis adopts a multi-scientific study method including case studies, economic, technological, legal and institutional analysis. The pollution abatement cases are from the US and UK, because historically the serious air smog episodes due to industrialization had happened in many cities of the two countries, which are like what is happening in China now. Case studies compare the pollution problem in Beijing, Los Angeles and London, and focus on how environmental laws work for emission reduction. The study results show that the economic phase in China now is close to the EKC turning point and is at similar phase comparing to the historical pollution treatment stages during the middle of last century in the US and UK. However, the positive EKC trend does not inevitably come without strong environmental legislation, technological development and economic-social institution sustainability transformation. The implication for China is that the current pollution control laws and its implementation in China at the crucial moment would most likely decide the future environmental, economic, and social situation in China. Loose environmental laws might cause environmental indulgence, while implementation of scientific environmental laws and standards can work effectively on emission reduction and enhancing technology and economic development at the same time. And the scientific based legislation skills from developed countries provide a good lesson to be drawn for China on how to make the laws and standards.

<p>This paper considers the fast changing developments and changes in relation to sustainable development law with its three pillars, and the needs of international development. The focus of the analysis is on the connection between international economic, international social and international environmental law which constitute sustainable development law at their intersection point, and will show how they can be the paths to sustainable peace. As sustainable development law is emerging as international concern, the qualitative approach of this paper will show its pillars separately and their connection under different conditions. This paper also demonstrates that this approach is gaining ground in the literature, and it contends that it is a more appropriate way of addressing the problems of economic, social and environmental. In support of this argument, the paper looks initially how sustainable development law fits to be the path to sustainable peace within the contemporary world which is full of economic, social and environmental conflicts. Secondly, it provides a theoretical framework how sustainable development law with its pillars can lead the world to sustainable peace. Thirdly, the three pillars, (-international economic law, international social law and international environmental law-), will be elaborated in relation to their intersection and sustainable development law.</p>

I explore the environmental and economic value to be gained by using a greater proportion of renewable distributed generation, mainly solar, relative to centralized generation in the United States in this thesis. I explain the benefits of distributed solar, namely the reductions in environmental damage and the economic benefits for system owners. These benefits will are compared to the obstacles to renewable distributed generation adoption: the costs associated with installation, the political resistance from utilities and power producers, and the aspects of current energy infrastructure that limit wider adoption of distributed solar. I make recommendations for changes to utility strategy, as well as provide policy prescriptions at the local, state, and national level to incentivize distributed solar. These findings and suggested actions can help inform policymakers and utilities as they shape future U.S. energy infrastructure.

Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes the current and potential role of law in enabling adaptation. We apply this framework to different social-ecological settings, centers of activity, and scales, illustrating the multidimensional and polycentric nature of water governance. Adaptation typically emerges organically among multiple centers of agency and authority in society as a relatively self-organized or autonomous process marked by innovation, social learning, and political deliberation. This self-directed and emergent process is difficult to create in an exogenous, top-down fashion. However, traditional centers of authority may establish enabling conditions for adaptation using a suite of legal, economic, and democratic tools to legitimize and facilitate self-organization, coordination, and collaboration across scales. The principles outlined here provide preliminary legal and institutional foundations for adaptive environmental governance, which may inform institutional design and guide future scholarship.

This dissertation evaluates the role and effectiveness of law in the transboundary environmental governance of the Baltic Sea with regard to eutrophication. To this end, it reviews the applicable international agreements with their related instruments, as well as the EU legal frameworks, for the protection of the Baltic Sea environment on the basis of theories on resilience in social-ecological systems. The scientific discourse on resilience in social-ecological systems provides theories on effective governance of complex environmental problems with nonlinear causal connections. The governance features identified in resilience governance also show significant similarities with characteristic features of the concept of ecosystem approach. The resilience features can thus provide guidance to the operationalization of this concept, which lacks a distinct meaning in the legal context. Eutrophication is one of the main environmental problems in the Baltic Sea. Despite the fact that this problem has been acknowledged since the 1970s, only little progress has been visible in the attempts to limit the problem. Environmental governance in the form of cooperation and common action has, however, been established by the coastal states of the Baltic Sea to reduce the discharges to their common resource. This was originally coordinated through the Helsinki Convention and its administrative organization HELCOM in the 1970s. Since the year 2000 a new set of legal instruments and approaches have developed, emphasizing also the ecosystem approach. These instruments have a basis both in HELCOM and in EU environmental law, most significantly represented by the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. They establish a unique regulatory structure, with new approaches to regulation, which also give rise to questions regarding interpretation and effectiveness that have not previously been analyzed. It is concluded that applicable law in the Baltic Sea area reflects resilience features such as adaptability, flexibility and redundancy within the legal structure. The legal structure for the Baltic Sea is dynamic and stretches over many levels of governance. The applicable legal instruments are constructed so as to be adaptable and flexible. The legal instruments moreover include significant elements that provide for participation at different levels and in different forms, which contribute to enabling the mentioned resilience features. However, the Baltic Sea legal structure – as law in general – has different core functions than just providing for effective environmental governance. Law is based in a number of general principles connected to the rule of law and the function of law as a foundation for stability in the society and in human interactions. These principles are also important since they are directly linked to enforcement, monitoring and control. While the legal structure in the Baltic Sea may provide for effective governance and social-ecological resilience, the resilience features reflected in law do not always appear as far-reaching as suggested by resilience theories, much due to the legal principles. It is however because of these principles and the base for binding requirements they enable, that law can push for governance measures and features that might not have been accomplished otherwise. This, in the larger perspective, includes creating requirements that steer human activities away from critical thresholds. / Baltic Ecosystem Adaptive Management, BEAM

This diploma thesis deals with the instruments of environmental protection which are used in the Czech legal system. Thanks to these instruments, the state and other institutions try to assign the most effective environmental protection possible. We can divide these instruments into two main categories, direct and indirect. The direct instruments are divided into conceptual, administrative - law, vindicatory and voluntary. The indirect are represented by the economic instruments, which can be divided into instruments of positive and negative stimulation. The thesis also contains specification of the particular basic principles of the environmental protection and the concretization of the institutions responsible for the protection. Each chapter also contains a demonstration of how each particular group of instruments can be practically applied in the nature and landscape protection.