Articles

Climate Change Law in an Era of Multi-Level Governance

Jacqueline Peel^a1, Lee Godden^a2 and Rodney J. Keenan^a3

^a1 Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: j.peel@unimelb.edu.au

^a2 Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: l.godden@unimelb.edu.au

^a3 School of Land and Environment, University of Melbourne, Australia. Email: rkeenan@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

As international negotiations struggle to deliver timely, binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels, the environmental legal community has begun to contemplate the scope for climate governance ‘beyond’ the international climate change regime. Many see merit in a more decentralized, disaggregated approach, operating across multiple governance levels. This article examines the development of climate change law in an era of multi-level governance. It analyzes several case studies of current manifestations of multi-level governance in climate change law, including the fragmented global emissions trading system, developing arrangements governing forests and land-based sinks, the growth of climate litigation establishing transnational liability principles, efforts to ensure adaptation to unavoidable climate change, and the emergence in federal systems of a decentralized approach to climate change regulation. The article concludes by considering whether the emerging multi-level system of climate governance is adequate to meet broader international goals of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

(Online publication May 16 2012)

Keywords

• Climate Change;
• Multi-Level Governance;
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);
• Kyoto Protocol;
• Emissions Trading

Footnotes

  The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support under Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP0987850, ‘Responding to Climate Change: Australia’s Environmental Law and Regulatory Framework’, and invaluable research assistance provided by Ms Lisa Caripis and Ms Emma Cocks.